


Abiogenesis

by Oblivion_Wanderer



Category: SOMA (Video Game), Turn (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Artificial Intelligence, Body Horror, Ethical Dilemmas, F/M, Horror, Morality, Robots, SOMA au, Underwater, a bit of a dark adventure, some philosophical moments, weird mutated creatures here and there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-17 05:59:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 27,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11845389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oblivion_Wanderer/pseuds/Oblivion_Wanderer
Summary: He just expected this to be a routine brain scan, but Edmund’s not sure what to think when he wakes up in a strange, run down, and dark place. Quickly, he catches on that something is very wrong here… and that he’s deep underwater. And then he meets Anna Strong; the consciousness of a woman who was working on something called the ARK.But the real questions remain- Why is he here? And what exactly happened in this place?





	1. Upsilon

**Author's Note:**

> A SOMA AU I imagined in the middle of the s3 madness of Turn. SOMA is a beautiful horror game that takes place underwater, and a game I love so much. This will be a 10 part fic that will go all the way from the starting location in Upsilon, all the way to the end. Each chapter will go to a different location (and will be named after said location). That said, there are spoilers for the game if you have not played it/seen a LP of it. 
> 
> Title of this fic comes from the song Abiogenesis, by Carbon Based Lifeforms

It was dark when the helmet came off. The broom-closet lab set up was gone and replaced by darkness.

Edmund blinked, but the darkness stayed, save for a dim red light a few feet away. Maybe the lights had gone out for some reason, but still this didn't seem right. Everything felt wrong. He looked down at his feet; he could see them as well as the chair he was sitting in, but he could barely see anything else around him. He couldn't make out where he was or what was going on.

“H-Hello?” Edmund called out, confused. “Mr. Sackett? Did something go wrong?”

No response came back to him. He slowly rose from the chair, keeping a hand on the armrests. He tried looking around, but the only thing he could make out was that same red light. An emergency light? He didn't remember seeing any sort of emergency lights before.

“Mr. Sackett?” He tried again. “Th-This isn't funny if this is your idea of a practical joke.” He settled his gaze back once again to the red light. It was the only thing that was clear in the dark.

Edmund willed himself to move towards it, taking careful steps. He wasn't sure of what was going on, and he took a deep breath in an attempt to keep himself calm. When he got to the red light, he saw a lever in the low light, just barely. Edmund wasn't sure what this lever was for. Maybe it was a backup switch for the lights or power in case of an outage.

And so he pulled the lever.

As the light's flickered back on he caught sight of a cracked window he knew hadn't been there before. There wasn't supposed to be a window; there was supposed to be machinery. If he remembered the layout, there was supposed to be a door. The rest of the lights came on and confused, he turned, expecting this to be a joke and Mr. Sackett was still here, but he was not there.

The room Edmund was in was not as he remembered ether.

“Wh-What the hell?” He whispered aloud.

The room was bathed in a blue light, and there were suits along the walls. He saw the chair he had been sitting in near the back wall of suits, but there was a dark stain like blood in front of it. Machinery was on the other side, adorned with blue and red lights. There was also a workbench nearby with a blue light over it, where the wall looked like it was dented.

This was not the same room he had been in before.

Edmund was now very confused and feeling somewhat overwhelmed by waking up here. He backed up against the wall, letting himself slide down to the floor. He scanned the room over again, taking everything in. There was nothing remotely recognizable about any of it, so not only was he not in the same room, he was in an entirely different and foreign place altogether.

It didn't make any sense.

The last thing he remembered was walking through that door, talking with Mr. Sackett and then sitting in the chair so they could start the scan. There was a flash of white and then nothing. Then he had woke up in this darkness. Edmund didn't understand any of this; it was supposed to be a routine thing. He was supposed to be in Edinburgh, not in... wherever this place was.

 _'I'm dreaming. I must be dreaming._ _'_ He tried to reason with himself, but it wasn't working too well. Something was telling him that this wasn't a dream.

But if it wasn't a dream, that begged the question... Where was he? Why was he here?

Edmund's shoulders trembled as he drew in more breaths, trying to keep composure. He couldn't get too stressed, else he'd aggravate his injury. He had to try and remain calm; there had to be some sort of reason for whatever was going on. He could figure this out.

After a few minutes, only the eerie quiet around to listen to, Edmund turned his gaze to the door by the window, a glowing red panel next to it.

_'I can figure this out.'_

And the first step to doing that was to get outside of this room and see if he could find anyone, find out where he was. He didn't think he was going to get any answers by staying here.

Edmund rose from the floor and wandered over to the door. He assumed the red panel was to open the door, perhaps by touch. He put his hand to it, and it beeped, but the door didn't open. He tried again, but nothing. He sighed and then allowed his gaze to drift over to the workstation next to him. There was a sign above the workstation-

Service Console: Omnitool Chip Installer

“Omnitool...” Edmund muttered.

He looked down at the station to see a hollow spot where something should go in Edmund assumed that it must be this 'Omnitool' thing. His gaze drifted to the console next to it, which said it needed such a device to gain access. If he could get access, then maybe he could get information, answers to his questions. However, he needed the Omnitool first.

Maybe it was lying around this room somewhere, but a quick glance around the room didn't show it to him. He went to the computer at the back, to see if there was anything there, but he found nothing. This computer was offline, which meant he wouldn't be getting any information here.

If the Omnitool wasn't anywhere in this room, that meant it was somewhere else. That Omnitool may be the only clue he had to figuring things out and he needed to get a hold of it.

But first he had to figure out how to get out of this room.

The door was locked, as Edmund had discovered, but hiss eyes fell to the cracked window. Maybe if he could find something heavy enough he could break it. If that was possible, he could get out of this room though the window.

There was a discarded chair on the floor and Edmund thought that would be good enough. He picked up the chair and examined it briefly before taking it to the window.

“Well, here goes nothing.” Edmund said to himself before swinging the chair at the window as hard as he could. The forceful contact fractured the glass further and shattered it. Edmund dropped the chair in surprise and stepped back away from the fallen glass. He'd never broken a window before.

Leaving the chair and the room behind, Edmund climbed through the window and out into the dimply lit corridor to continue searching for the Omnitool.

The hall was just as dreary as the inside of that room from a quick glance around and only added more to his confusion. This looked like some sort of facility or lab complex, a rather dark one. The few lights that were on suggested to him this was some sort of emergency power lighting. It was strange and eerie... and void of people.

There was a door to his right, with some kind of lock on it. It was the door to the room he had just come out of. He examined the lock, and it appeared the only way to release it was by turning the lever. A bit hesitant, Edmund did and the lock detached and fell away, startling him. The panel beside the door turned yellow now, and Edmund could only assume that it was now unlocked. Had that been why he couldn't get out until he decided to smash the window? Why had he been locked in there if that was true?

In any case, he had to put it aside for now and find that Omnitool. So, deciding it was the only way to go, Edmund started down the hall.

His footsteps were slow and careful, intimidated by the dim lighting throughout. The atmosphere of... wherever he was intimidated him in general. There were a couple unlocked rooms from first inspection, but upon searching both he had no such luck finding an Omnitool in the deserted rooms. Nor did it help him gain any information about what this place was or why he was here; two of the biggest questions currently on his mind.

However, he did find in one room he went to search through, a black mechanical like mass attached to one corner of a room that dripped black liquid. On a wall attached to a panel was also a black mass, but with glowing blue spots.

Staring up at it only confused Edmund more and made him more tense. It was unsettling.

Leaving the break room he saw a coms panel on the wall glowing red and green. A closer inspection revealed it was offline there was some kind of data buffer.

"Maybe you can tell me something." Edmund said to it, reaching out intending to see if he could try and get the data buffer, but when he touched it-

A tingling sensation ran through his finger and down his spine and up as well straight to his brain, making him shiver. He pulled his hand away as if he'd been shocked but then he heard something like static. He heard the play back some kind of conversation between two people, talking about sealing up something.

 _'Seal? From what?_ _Did something happen here?_ _'_ He wondered. He listened until the conversation ended in static again, the stared at the panel before looking down at his hand. The panel said it was offline, so how was he able to access whatever that transmission was? _'How was I able to get that panel to work?'_

It only added to the whole mystery, but if anything one thing was clear now; based on the conversation, and the fact that he had yet to encounter any person, something had happened, before he had woken up in that room.

Continuing down the corridor, Edmund came to a lock similar to the other one. The sign next to it said 'machine hangar'. There was another one of those X shaped locks, sealing up the room like the one he'd woken up in. Turning the lever on the lock, he let it fall and clatter to the floor, and then he opened the door and went inside.

The room was lit like the others, this one scattered with machinery, but the only things of note were suspended machines that were more like robots than anything else. They were a bit creepy looking. The other notable thing was another black mass with blue spots like before, this time with tentacles extending into the computer monitors. They reminded him more of cancerous growths than anything else. He distanced himself from the computers, not wanting to get close to it.

By doing so he accidentally backed into one of the hanging robots, gaining a yelp from him as he sharply turned on his heel. Edmund gave a sigh when he realized it was just the robot. It was inactive.

He searched a nearby desk for the Omnitool, but it wasn't here ether, just random parts and blueprints. Looking up from the table, he caught sight of a blue glow coming from just around the corner. Curious, Edmund wandered to the back of the room he saw a glowing blue sign that read 'Pathos II'.

_'Is that where I am?'_

Edmund had never heard of such a place before, which did support his theory of secret base or lab. It was at least something. That still didn't explain why he was here, why the place looked so run down, if something had happened prior to his awakening, or what the black and bioluminescent growths were. He also wondered that, if this was a base or lab, where everyone was. There should be people around, and yet this place was devoid of any thus far, as if there had been no one to begin with. There had to be people though; he'd heard them in that transmission.

Something sparked out of the corner of his eye and startled him again. Edmund turned, only to see that the sparks had come from one of the hanging robots. He walked over to it and picked up it's arm to examine it, wondering what it had been crafted for it it had 'arms'.

At that moment, another jolt like before went through his hand and he let go, feeling it buzz around in his head before he heard a woman's voice. He couldn't tell if it was the same as before.

She was talking to something. Perhaps this machine? She mentioned something about structure gel, whatever that was, and then she shut something down.

The message ended, and Edmund just stared at the robot.

 _'For some reason I can hear conversations from touching them.'_ Edmund observed. _'But... why is that?'_

His thoughts were then interrupted by a loud bang. Edmund thought it was the robot coming to life, but it stayed still. The sound came again and he whirled around, afraid something was behind him, but there was nothing there, though he still heard the sound. It sounded like... like something was trying to get through the wall, which was ridiculous sounding because he didn't close the door behind him. Edmund was frozen to the spot; his heart pounding and his mind wondering frantically if something was coming in here. Was there something in this place with him?

The noise faded, but Edmund was still rooted to where he was standing. He wasn't sure what that had been or if it was even gone. Cautiously, he rounded the corner, but saw that there was nothing here; everything was as he had seen when he entered-

Actually, not everything.

One of the robots he had backed into before was gone.

Edmund blinked and shook his head. There had been two hanging robots there before, right? Maybe he was just over thinking it and there had only been one after all. This was just getting more bizarre by the minute.

He knew he had to continue looking for the Omnitool though, and since it wasn't in here, he'd have to continue on to somewhere else. First though, he took a wrench from the desk he had searched before he even dared leave the room.

He leaned out of the doorway and looked down the hall, seeing nothing but dim lights and darkness ahead. Keeping a grip on the wrench, he left the maintenance room and continued down the hall. There was an open door he had not gone through yet, and that being the only direction remaining, he chose to go there.

Through that door, he found more of those weird growths in random corners. He also stumbled across another one of those hanging robots. Edmund continued past the robot and beyond that caught sight of a door with another one of those locks. He turned to go up the steps, but just then the power cut out and Edmund found himself in darkness again. He stood still for a moment, but then heard a loud bang, coming from behind the door.

He heard clanging and faint screaming, and, spooked by the noise, stumbled backwards and dropped the wrench. At the same time, Edmund's vision began to glitch- literally glitch- in and out of focus. He was too distracted by the screaming, but that didn't escape him. When all had gone quiet, Edmund drew in a shaky breath, wondering what on Earth did he just hear.

After a moment, he picked up the wrench again and then slowly headed for the steps. Once at he door, he reached for the lock's switch. It fell, and Edmund steeled himself for whatever awaited him beyond the door. He opened the door, wrench at the ready.

There was nothing in the room.

Relieved, Edmund stepped forward into the space, dull blue light coming from a couple different areas. There was splashes of black ooze on the ground, and more of those growths on the far side. He didn't dare go near those. There was another desk nearby, and as he got near it, he saw an object with a familiar shape.

"Ah-ha!" He exclaimed, grabbing it off the desk. It was a red hand-held device that read 'Omnitool' on the screen; exactly what he was looking for. Now hopefully he would get some answers.

Edmund left the room and backtracked to where the service console was, still keeping his wrench with him. Something was terribly off here and, given earlier noises, he didn't want to be unarmed. Edmund was no fighter though, so hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

Returning to the first room, Edmund placed the Omnitool where it belonged. The terminal next to it started up, and once it was finished, a list of options appeared. Edmund took a look at the list- system status, 3progressS6ScAN-EH, omnitool, and inventory. That really give him much to work with in answering any of his questions, but decided to go through the subsections anyway, starting with the weird amalgamation of letters.

A new screen popped up with a date and the name of a place. The name read, Upsilon, different than the sign he'd found in the maintenance room. Upsilon was a sector of this place then? The date, however, when he looked- he had to do a doubletake. The date read 2104/05/09.

"What?" He muttered, as if it would reply to him. Edmund tapped on the screen, seeing if it was glitched, but the date stayed the same. If that was right, then... then it meant he'd somehow jumped forward 100 years. Pushing that disturbing though aside for now, he read down through the rest. He could pick out his name, Mr. Sackett's, the words 'scan' and 'complete', and Edinburgh. He recalled the last letters on the file name, now realizing they were his initials. Did this have something to do with the brain scan he had?

He closed the file and read through the rest. System status didn't hold any good news, and Edmund had been right in thinking this place was running on emergency power. It said the emergency system had 13 days remaining. He checked whatever inventory held and only saw a listing of 'dive suits'.

He went into the Omnitool section and saw more options as to what to do with it. According to what he was reading, the Omnitool needed a 'cortex chip'. Filtering through the other options he saw an option to unlock a tool box. As he selected the option to unlock it and a noise sounded to tell him it was unlocked, a recording started to play on the terminal. It just explained how the Omnitool worked- it was a fancy door opener, in summary, used by field technicians. He saw a diagram of the Omnitool, including a cortex chip and a tool chip; other parts that went with the device. The recording ended with contact information for someone named 'George Washington' who was in a place called Theta.

 _'Like the man from America's war for independence from the British._ _Odd.'_ Edmund quietly remarked.

He then quickly set to work on putting the Omnitool around. After a bit of digging around, he found a cortex chip and a tool chip and inserted them both into the Omnitool. The Omnitool came to life and said it needed the proper updates, so he went back in and gave the device the required updates, easily found on the terminal.

With the Omnitool now updated and functioning, Edmund knew there was nothing left in this room, and if he was going to get answers to anything, he had to keep moving. He took one last look at the room before he left, looking at the suits along the wall, but Edmund knew he couldn't stay. There was nothing here for him.

 

* * *

 

He remembered the path he had traveled before, despite the main lights off and the red ones on, and with Omnitool in hand, he might be able to venture further. He hadn't run into any dead ends or locked doors (besides the X lock ones) yet, but having something like the Omnitool was likely beneficial to him. He approached the room where he found the Omnitool and found a turn in the path, a long straight corridor. He figured that was the direction he should go in next, so he turned to go in that direction.

He kept walking, but then something fell from the ceiling somewhere in front of him and a bright blue light came from the ceiling. And then Edmund thought he saw something in that blue light.

He nearly dropped the Omnitool, but quickly ran back and hid behind a corner. He heard the same noise again, the clunking and screaming, and stayed hidden in the corner, at least until the noise went away. When the noise was gone, he snuck back out from his hiding place and to the corridor, but didn't see anything, just what looked like wires hanging from an open vent.

 _'This place really is falling apart.'_ Edmund realized. _'What happened here?'_

He steeled himself and continued on, though choosing to move along the wall and not under that opening in the vent as he passed it by.

He soon reached a red circular door, one with a panel that said to scan to Omnitool there. Edmund did as the panel said and the door in front of him opened. There was more light that greeted him in what looked like a tunnel of sorts. Edmund stepped through the doorway and started to make his way through the tunnel, but when he came to the main section he stopped in his tracks.

"Oh my God..."

There were glass panels in the space around him, clear, and through the glass, Edmund saw water, open water.

He was underwater; deep underwater by the looks of it.

Feeling shocked by this revelation, Edmund took slow steps forward, his shoes echoing off the metal path as he took in all around him.

 _'How am I here?'_ He wondered. _'How am I underwater?'_

It was unreal, it was unbelievable, and yet somehow he was here. He was in some kind of massive lab or base that was located underwater. Many more questions stacked upon the ones Edmund already had, and none of them had been answered yet. Just as unsettling was, again, the lack of people. He'd seen evidence that people were here, but there was still no one in sight.

Edmund didn't know what to think.

He soon reached the end of the tunnel and took some stairs upwards. Now back 'inside' whatever this place was, Edmund saw a sign off to the side of various locations. He didn't linger long though, continuing on. The next room he came across had the door open and broken, more of those black growths attached and running into a computer. However, when he stepped in, the power went out.

Edmund looked around for a light to tell him where to go. He didn't see any doors, but he did see a yellow panel near the infected computer. He went over to it, touched it, and expected to see a door open. However, a vent opened up in front of him instead, the interior bathed in red light.

"Oh no..."

It was small, enclosed- not what Edmund wanted. However, he didn't see any other way out of here that wasn't locked or broken, so it seemed like he was left with no choice. So he climbed up into the vent and started to crawl through.

It wasn't as small as he thought it was, and he fit inside, enough to move forward. He figured it must be a maintenance shaft or something of that nature. He followed the red lights and the vent forward, until he came to a crossroads. He looked down both and decided to try the right hand path first. Following that forward, he soon came across what looked like an opening with a yellow panel, meaning he could get through. When he reached it, he opened up the hatch and crawled through into another room.

This room looked like an observation or control room, and still there was black ooze and bioluminescence. Crossing the room he saw a control panel and a mass of... something on the floor. Even upon closer, but not too close, inspection Edmund couldn't tell what it was. It was simply a mass of machinery and those weird black growths. He could see two large tubes extend out of it and too the control panel, making a sound as if it was draining whatever power remained from it. It almost sounded like it was... breathing.

Edmund made a grimace, somewhat disgusted by this amalgamation, and turned to the control panel. There was a sticky note attached to it that said "Do not touch structure gel leakage. Can't confirm effect on WAU. Issue has been reported."

 _'WAU?'_ Edmund glanced up from the sticky note and back to the wriggling mass on the floor, wondering if this note had something to do with that.

Turning his attention back to the monitors for now, Edmund saw that he wasn't going to get very far with this. The screens were active but fuzzy, as if something was interfering with them. His eyes glanced down at the tubes running into the control panel, the ones that lead to the thing on the floor. Maybe it was draining power from this.

Deciding to test his theory, Edmund set the Omnitool on the control panel and took hold of one of the tubes, cold and rough under his hand. He pulled on it a couple times before it finally came free with a sickening wet sound. He removed the second one as well, but when he did-

"Don't!"

Edmund dropped the tube at the voice, hearing it come from behind him, and the only thing that was behind him was-

He whirled around, seeing the thing near his feet spasm.

"I need it..." The voice said again, sounding desperate. Its body jerked once more before the 'light' on its head went out. "I was okay. I was happy."

 _'It spoke...'_ Edmund realized. He didn't understand how that was possible, but it was the only other thing in the room with him. _'It was alive... and I think I just killed it.'_

He stared at the lifeless thing on the floor for a minute, but the sound of something firing up tore his attention away. Something on the other side of the large windows lit up, giving Edmund a view of the area beyond. He saw the name Upsilon again on a sign. The screens on the control panel lit up as well, the one on the left catching his attention as it listed names of places he did not know. Although there was a location listed in Spain and one in Portugal.

All of them showed they were offline... save for one called site Lambda. The sound of static came from the console.

_'Lambda?'_

In the next moment the screen changed, showing that something called Lambda was connected with Upsilon.

"Huh? What- What's happening?" A voice came from the console; a woman's voice.

Hope sparked in Edmund's chest. That was an actual voice; a human voice. Someone was talking to him, someone who was also somewhere in this place.

"H-Hello?" Edmund responded as he approached the console. "Hello? Can you hear me? Are you there?"

"Yes. Yes, I'm here, Upsilon. I can hear you." The woman replied. "What's going on over there?"

"I'm not sure myself. I just- It's hard to explain, but- well, you see I woke up here. I'm not sure what's going on, I just found myself in this place and-"

"Hold on; slow down." The woman interrupted him. "Start from basics. What's your name?"

"Edmund Hewlett." He answered

"Alright. Now what do you mean you-" There was a loud burst of static and the sound of something falling over. The woman's voice picked back up again once it had passed. "Damn relays. Look, where are you in Upsilon?"

Edmund looked through the large windows. "Not entirely certain. I think maybe some kind of plant; something producing power."

"Yeah, that sounds about right. The main power generators of Upsilon; thermal generators."

"Upsilon..." Edmund repeated the name. "I saw another name, Pathos II. Is where I am now a sector of this Pathos II?"

"Wait, do you really not-" The burst of static came again. "Alright, this reception is terrible. Go to the coms center on the other side of the generators and upstairs. It's in a domed ceiling. I'll wait here, just head on over to the coms ceneter."

"Okay, I think I can do that, but..." There was so much Edmund wanted to ask this stranger, the first contact he's had with anything thus far, someone who could give him answers. "Something's not right here."

But the line had already gone dead. The stranger was gone.

Edmund tried getting the woman back, but he was unable to. He looked out into where the generators sat, knowing he'd now have to find a way through and get to the coms center.

"So much for getting answers." He said aloud, picking the Omnitool back up again.

Edmund found the door that would allow him to go into where the generators were and opened it. He found himself on a catwalk-like platform, and he took a minute to look down into the thermal generators, watching the glowing light within it. He followed the path along the edge of the room, passing by what at first looked like a way across and down but had the middle missing out of it. He did see a ladder nearby, and he started to descend that way.

A few rungs in, the ladder suddenly broke, sending Edmund falling to the ground. It wasn't too high up a fall, but enough to knock the wind out of him. When he was finally got his breathing back under control and picked the Omnitool up from off the floor, glad to see that it was not broken, he started to get to his feet. However, Edmund heard a familiar sound and looked up to see a blue light.

The blue light belonged to a creature emerging from another hallway.

Afraid he'd been seen, Edmund ducked behind some machinery, holding the Omnitool close.

 _'What the bloody hell is that?'_ He questioned, his heart racing in his chest. Edmund knew the noise it was making, and wondered if this was what he'd heard before. Was that the voice of this creature?

Trembling, he listened to try and calculate where it was going, listening to it's loud stomping noises. Edmund knew somehow he had to get around this thing, whatever it was, and up to the coms center. Trusting in his hearing, thinking that it went somewhere to his left, Edmund moved as carefully as he could from his hiding place; moving slowly around the pillar of machinery and chancing a look around to see it.

It reminded him of the thing back in the control room, except this one was bigger and could walk. It was a mess of bioluminescence and machinery; it almost looked like one of those robots he had seen earlier, but fused with the strange black growths and actually had legs.

Edmund's vision started to glitch again, and he had to look away, shutting his eyes in an effort to make it stop. It'd happened before and he didn't know what was causing it. It worried him, but there would be time to worry later. He had to keep track of the creature so he could make his move.

He watched as it disappeared around a corner and then he made a break for the stairs, trying to be as quiet as he could and listening for the creature. He started up the stairs, but then noticed that there was hot steam coming out of pipes along the wall and blocking his path. A chill of dread went down his spine; he couldn't get through that without possibly getting burned.

There had to be a way to turn this steam off. Then he remembered; there were valve controls back down the stairs and over along the wall. Quickly, while the creature was still in another corner of the room, Edmund went back down the stairs and hid under them, watching for it through the gaps. He saw it over on the way other side of the room, and maybe that would be enough time for Edmund to get over to the valves.

Watching and listening, Edmund left his hiding place and went over to the valves under the nearby Upsilon sign. Once there, he looked behind him and around him, and then went to work on turning the valves. There were two and they showed which direction they needed to be turned in order to shut down. Edmund got through one, but the second one was a bit sticky, and he heard the clanking footsteps start to get louder. With a harsh pull, Edmund finished off the second one, but at the same time heard a shriek from the creature. The footsteps got louder and faster.

Edmund turned and saw a flash of blue, saw the mass of the creature round a corner. It knew he was here. He took off running toward the stairs as fast as he could, trying to outrun the creature before it got to him. He could hear its footsteps, loud and mechanical, and could also hear its 'voice'; a horrible sound like some eldritch monster. At the stairs, Edmund saw that the steam was off, meaning he could now get through. He would have had to run through it otherwise.

Hearing the creature cry out again, he hurried up to the top of the steps, praying he didn't trip on the way up. At the top, appearing to be in another room, he saw a switch. Not wasting any time, he flipped it and the path he came up sealed itself off by a metal barrier. The creature would not be able to follow him.

Edmund's hands shook as he stared at the sealed stairs, his mind trying to comprehend what he had just seen. That... creature, whatever it was, was nothing like Edmund had ever seen before. The image of it was still in his mind; the blue glow and it's awkward, clunky movements. The blue glowing spots of the thing... they almost looked like eyes. It's warped call still rang in his ears. 

He ended up sitting down on the floor to rest, still staring at the sealed off stairs, knowing that creature was probably still wandering around looking for him. Why was something like that here? We're there experiments going on down here? 

In any case, he hoped he didn't see that creature again or anything else like it.

But he knew that also meant, aside from the mysterious woman, he might not be truly alone as he previously thought, and not in the good way. 

 

* * *

 

When he felt like he could continue on, Edmund went up the next set of stairs. Coming to something that was almost like an office space. There was someone's belongings near an area that looked like an assembly line, some desks and computers in one corner, and another set of stairs near the center. He also saw a map of Upsilon. Edmund took a look at the map and located where he was on it, then locating the coms center. It said it was up one more level, so he could only assume the stairs.

He went over to the stairs, but there was a terminal saying there wasn't sufficient power to open up the coms center. Giving a frown, Edmund looked around to see if there was any way to restore power.

He tried one corridor that lead nowhere, except to a dead body.

"Oh God..." Edmund whispered. "He's dead..."

Edmund found a name tag lying on the ground, and picking it up, he saw that this person's name was Carl. Edmund decided to leave the I.D. with Carl, but as Edmund pinned it back on, he felt that surge again, running stronger this time up his hand and straight to his brain.

He heard someone speaking... Carl. He was talking to someone; a woman, but not the same one Edmund had spoken to earlier. It was a short conversation, having to do with the thermal plant, but it didn't help any.

 _'I can read those data buffers, that one machine, and now a person. Did I suddenly become psychometric?'_ Edmund recounted, the questions never ending. _'My vision has glitched twice as well. What's going on with me? Something's not right...'_

Aside from Carl, a note saying Uplison was sealed, a warning for flood control, and an I.D. for an 'Amy', Edmund didn't find anything else down the corridor, so he went back into the main hub.

There was a back room that looked promising, but yield nothing but a robot that he tested to see if he could read it like that last one. He could, but he fled to the other side of the room when the memory screeched at him. Edmund left the room after. He tried a room labeled storage next, but only found something inside called a 'blackbox'. It was a little device implanted into people's head. Edmund winced at thinking about the implications and left it alone.

He tried the computers, hoping maybe power could be restore through them. Instead he found reports detailing something about robots becoming erratic, reports on the thermal plant, and staff listings. Apparently whatever happened, had something to do with these robots. That creature he encountered down in the thermal generators, that too had looked like a robot beyond everything else melted into it.

Eventually he stumbled across a power manager, and after some messing with it, he was able to get the coms center set back to go online. He just had to turn off the power to the room with the assembly line first.

As he stepped inside the assembly line room, a voice spoke up.

"Amy, is that you?" The voice asked.

Edmund looked around, remembering the last time he had heard something speak to him. He didn't see anyone aside from a robot, twitching as if alive. And that voice... Edmund remembered it from the memory; it was Carl.

"Um, no." He answered, a bit hesitant. Carl was dead, so how were they speaking right now. "My name is Edmund."

He went down to the assembly line, to the robot that had spoken to him. It lay on the floor, attached to something coming out of the wall. It appeared to be another one of those hanging robots, but this one was actually talking to him.

"Can... can you hear me?" He asked.

"Yeah. Oh- what the hell happened to you?"

Edmund was confused. "Me?"

"Yes, you."

"Er... I'm not sure what you mean, but I'm looking for the main power switch to this room; I need to divert power to the coms center."

"That? Switch is on the wall over there."

Edmund glanced around and located the switch. "Thank you, Carl."

"You know me?" Carl asked as Edmund moved over to the switch.

He looked back to Carl. "I found your I.D. You work here, yes?"

"Of course I do. Hey, have you seen Amy?"

"No, I haven't. Sorry."

Edmund flipped the switch and the room went dark, save for emergency lighting. Carl went silent too and Edmund wondered if he had indirectly killed him like that other thing in the thermal plant. The thought only now crossed his mind that he could have asked Carl about this place, and he felt a bit guilty. But power should be flowing to the come center now, and that's where he needed to be. 

He walked past Carl and was about to exit the room when he heard something like a backup generator kick in and then the sound of screaming.

Startled, Edmund turned to find that it was Carl, sparks flying from his metal body. Edmund was frozen by the screams; loud and agonizing. It was as if... as if Carl was in pain, and it was weird, and disturbing, because it was just a robot. It was just a robot... right?

It couldn't feel pain, right?

Still, the screaming was too much. Edmund left the room and shut the door behind him to drown out the screams. It only semi worked.

 _'_ _Is_ _he really in pain?'_ Edmund asked himself. It was as if shutting off the power to that room had caused that reaction, but even if that was the case, Edmund couldn't do anything; he needed to get into the coms center, and shutting off the power to that room allowed power to go to the coms center.

Ignoring the faint screams, he went over to the center stairs and saw on the terminal that he could now get up into the coms center. He opened it up and went up the final flight of stairs, closing up the path behind him once he was in the coms center.

Looking around, the place was exactly as the mysterious woman had said; a domed ceiling. There were circular windows near the top of the dome, and on the far side of the room, he saw a communications array and whiteboard with a map on it. It looked like there were pieces of paper on the whiteboard as well.

Edmund went over to the whiteboard to see what that was all about, finding threads connected to different places. Picking up a random paper, Edmund saw that the date was in January, 2103, one year less that the date he had noticed on that file where he woke up. The message on it was from Cadiz and mentioned "a better chance of survival". He picked up another one from around the same time frame and read through it. The paper talked about how all efforts to prevent some sort of collision have failed. Being an astronomer, Edmund knew very well what the word 'collision' implied.

He put the paper back and looked up at the ceiling, feeling utterly lost.

"What's happened?" He said to no one in particular, talking about both the mystery of what had happened down here and what had apparently happened on the surface.

The area around him shook, dragging Edmund out of his thoughts. The place was not stable, but this was where the woman had said to meet him, and given the state of things, Edmund knew he had to get in contact with her and then find a way out before everything collapsed.

He turned to the coms array, a message saying some LUMAR link was offline and that manual input was required. There was another screen bellow, listing locations; Upsilon, Theta, Lambda, Delta, Omicron, Phi, Tau, Omega. They were letters of the Greek alphabet, and each had a symbol and number next to it. He remembered Lambda, where she had called from, and put in the number for Lambda.

It took a moment for it to align, but it went through and he was connected to Lambda.

"Hello? Are you there?" Edmund called. "It's me, from before; Edmund. I'm here in the coms center."

The other end was quiet, but then there appeared a photo in the screen. It was an image of a woman, presumably the one he' been speaking to earlier. She had brown hair that was done up in a messy bun, though some loose strands fell around her face. Brown eyes gazed back at him from the photo, a small smile playing on the woman's lips. She was quite lovely looking, and yet there almost seemed to be a quiet determination burning behind those eyes.

"There you are." The woman spoke. "You made it. Hewlett, right?"

"Edmund Hewlett."

"Hello, Hewlett. My name is Anna Strong."

"Anna..." He tested her name, how it sounded. It was short and sweet. "It's nice to, ah, meet you, Miss Strong. I-I hope I used the correct- I don't mean to assume-"

"It's fine; it doesn't matter much these days, but you don't need to be so formal with me. Call me 'Anna'"

"Alright, Anna. Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Me?" She asked as if it were ridiculous "Depends on what you're asking."

"I was hoping you could tell me where I am. How I got here. And something's happened- is there anything you know about that? Then there's the robots- talking like people. There was one, I...I think he was in pain."

"Ah... okay. For starters, you're at Upsilon. It's a section of the Pathos II base. Have you not been here before?"

"No." Edmund replied sadly. "I'm an astronomer from Edinburgh; I study the stars, not the oceans. I have not heard of Pathos II in my entire life."

"Wait, are you serious?"

"Unfortunately."

Anna was quiet and Edmund thought they lost the connection again, but it was only a pause. "That's... not what I was expecting to hear. I think you mentioned before you just woke up here in Upsilon?"

"Yes, a room with some kind of chair. I was in Edinburgh one moment, and then the next I'm miles under the ocean and 100 years forward in time. I'm very much confused, Anna. There's no people around, everything looks like it's falling apart, there's a strange creature near the generators, the robots can talk, I can read certain objects and people by touch- I'm out of my time, Anna."

"Okay, calm down; don't give yourself a heart attack." Anna urged. "Listen, what you just said- that's unexpected. I actually don't know if I have all the answers, but... I'll tell you what I can. Why don't you start from the beginning."

"Very well." Then, more quietly, he added. "You... you can call me 'Edmund', if you'd like."

"Edmund... An old fashioned name. I kind of like it."

"Named after Edmond Halley himself."

"Halley's comet..."

Suddenly the room shook again, this time making Edmund stumble forward to grasp onto the console. That was worse than before.

"What's going on?" Anna asked.

Edmund heard the sound of something cracking, of metal bending, of water trickling. He looked around and saw water leaking through a crack in the wall. "Oh God- I think this place is about to collapse!"

"Edmund, get out of there!" Anna exclaimed. "Come to Lambda; that's were I am! You can get there using the shuttle system. It runs all through Pathos II."

Something creaked.

"You'll be at Lambda?"

"Yes! Go and get out of there; I'll wait for you at Lambda!"

The line cut out and the screen went black. 

"Anna?!" Edmund tried, but it was no use. More water was starting to leak in, and he could see that the wall was about to give way.

He hurried over to the stairs and tried to flip the switch to let him out, but the switch stuck, and as he pulled it broke and fell into the water. He was trapped.

"No, no, no-"

And then the wall gave way and the ceiling came down. Water flooded the coms center in a torrent and swept Edmund up along with it. The force of it dragged him under and flung him back against the remaining wall with such force that he hit his head on the console behind him.

His body sank as darkness started to swarm his vision...

 


	2. Lambda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edmund makes a startling discovery when he finds he's alive in the flooded coms center, raising even more mystery. Meanwhile, when he finally meets Anna at Lambda, he learns things are not as they appeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know half of this doesn't even take place at Lambda, however, Lambda is where Edmund will meet Anna, and it is also where we'll start getting some Anna POV, so keeping the chapter title as is. Plus I felt like the sudden flooding of the coms center was a good place to end the first chapter.
> 
> Here's where things start getting weird...

Drowning... He was drowning.

His head hurt too from when he hit the console, but he was certain he was drowning.

So this is how it ended; a death miles underwater where not a soul could hear or save him. He would die not knowing anything about why he was here or what was going on. Knew knew nothing, save for what little Anna had told him before the room caved in. The water had come rushing in and it would only be a matter of time now.

This coms center was to be his grave.

And so he let the water fill his lungs and the darkness that had crept into his vision drag him under.

 

* * *

 

Awareness came back slowly sometime later.

The first thing Edmund noticed was that he felt like he was floating, a dull sense of being still, but floating none the less. He moved an arm, but the movements a bit slowed; slightly sluggish. He opened his eyes next. The back of his head still hurt from where he hit the console when the water blew him back, but the thought still centered that something wasn't quite right.

He realized he was lying on the floor of the coms center and slowly was able to make out the details of the collapsed room. He remembered that the coms center had caved in, a wave of water flooding the room and tossing him back against a fall in its torrent. The coms center was no more.

The thought occurred to him then- he should be dead right now, but he was not. Somehow, he was still breathing; his lungs didn't feel like they were about to collapse and he didn't feel like he was choking helplessly on water.

He could still move, he could see perfectly, he could still breathe. Last he checked, he hadn't suddenly sprouted gills, so why was he still breathing?

Edmund sat up, trying to figure out why he wasn't lying on the floor dead. "How am I-"

There was a sharp sting of pain in his head, perhaps from when his head had hit that wall, and Edmund could not help but let out a pained cry in response. He held his head in his hands, trying to will it to pass, but it came again, this time going through his body and causing him to nearly double over. However, as he was attempting not to fall apart, he noticed something about his hands. Edmund pulled his hands away and the moment he did his vision glitched again... and showed himself changing.

His shaking hands and arms flickered into ones covered by a thin black membrane and spotted with blue bioluminescence, like the weird growths he'd been seeing throughout Upsilon. They kept flickering back and forth from normal human hands into these changed ones, and Edmund closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to make it stop. When the pain in his head faded, Edmund opening his eyes, hoping he had only imagined what he saw.

But he found he was changed; there was a new skin on his hands and arms.

He looked at his hands in silent horror. "W-What? How is this-" And then he looked to his legs to find that they were changed as well. He almost looked like he was wearing a strange wetsuit, but it looked like it was already there, melted to the skin. Edmund flexed his hands, finding he could still move just fine, but it did nothing too soothe the thoughts racing through his head.

Somehow he was still breathing- why? How could he suddenly breathe underwater? And this 'skin'... it looked sort of... alien. Coupled with the way is vision sometimes glitched and how he was able to read people and certain objects, it raised a startling question.

Was he even Human anymore?

In between the time when he had his brain scan done and waking up in Upsilon, had something happened to make him no longer Human? To turn him into this? But that still didn't explain how he woke up 100 years in the future.

Edmund continued to stare at his hands, tracing the lines running from the spots of bioluminescence. He felt shocked and overwhelmed by the new state of his body, all the whys and hows. Even the little bit of information he gained from Anna was of no help. It was all so much to try and process; Edmund didn't know what to do...

Actually, there was one thing he could do.

Anna had said she would wait for him at Lambda, another part of this place, Pathos II, that must be nearby. Before the cave-in, Edmund had managed to contact her. At present moment, despite his own whirlwind of confusion, he remembered that she was the only one who knew anything. She was his only contact. She had said that she might not have all the answers, but if anyone could help him, then it was Anna, and she was waiting at Lambda for him.

So that's what he could do; go to Lambda and find her... wherever Lambda was.

"Right..." Edmund muttered, then giving a sigh. "To Lambda it is; best not keep her waiting."

Edmund got up from up off the floor of the coms center, bracing himself on the railing as he got his bearings. He looked around the room for a way out, and found the Omnitool floating nearby. At least it hadn't been swept away. He took the device and found that on his new body there was a belt around his waist that he could clip the Omnitool to. He did so, and then began to look around for a way out. He found that where the water had come in, there was a gaping hole. It was big enough for him to get out through.

He approached the wall and looked up at it before jumping up to try and grab at something. His hands found a ledge of sorts and he grabbed on, pulling himself up and over. When he got through the hole and to the outside of the room, he let himself fall to the ground, and then he finally got a good look at the ocean around him.

It was dark everywhere around him, save for some lights along nearby structures, but not too dark. He just couldn't see too far ahead of him. It certainly showed how far underwater he was, though he couldn't determine what the exact depth was. Edmund wondered, based on the scenery around him, if Pathos II was located on the ocean floor. It looked like that might be the case.

Looking around, he didn't know how he was going to find the shuttle station to Lambda, but he had to try.

Wandering forward, he came upon some kind of light post, and he paused there to try and get a better grasp on things. He tried to see any more structures in the distance, but he couldn't make much out. It was all dark beyond him. He could see lights scattered here and there, so he decided to follow those, hoping they would eventually lead him to the shuttle station.

Edmund did come across another one of those transmitters, still reading the same output as the last one he had seen. He also remembered what had happened the last time he touched one of them, discovering that he could access the data by touch for some odd reason. Edmund wondered if that had something to do with the way his body was now, whatever he had become.

 _'Might as well put it to use.'_ He thought. _'_ _I_ _f these terminals can reveal information to me...'_

Edmund put his hand to the terminal, feeling that familiar shock. He was starting to get used to it, as much as it unnerved him. Voices came through the static; first a woman's voice that he remembered hearing back when he read Carl. Edmund learned her name was Amy; she was calling someone named Strasky. Amy sounded in a panic, something about Carl getting killed by something, then getting angry at Strasky. She said she was going back to a place called Theta via the shuttle, then the transmission cut.

Edmund pulled his hand away. _'So that thing I saw did kill Carl. Although that doesn't explain why that robot claimed it was Carl.'_ He pushed that thought to the side. _'I must be near the shuttle if that's where Amy said she was heading.'_

He continued on, following what lights he could go by, and eventually came to a smaller structure with a glowing sign.

 _'Upsilon B.'_ He read to himself, looking up at the sign. _'I'm getting somewhere at least.'_

Turning his gaze away from the sign, Edmund caught sight of something, a blue light, blinking on the ground. He tensed, for a moment thinking it might be another creature, but relaxed when it didn't move any closer. Deciding to get a closer look, Edmund crept over to the light, finding that it was was something trapped under some rocks, a small robot of sorts. It made tiny beeping sounds, as if it was in distress.

Feeling sympathy for the little thing and deciding it didn't look like it would eat his face, Edmund managed to push to rocks off of it. Once free, the little robot rose from the ground. It had a screen on the front and almost looked like it had tiny wings or pointed cat ears. It stared at him, or at least Edmund felt like it was staring at him, and then moved forward to nudge him in the shoulder.

Edmund flinched, but the robot was doing no harm. It withdrew and floated in front of him, giving a beep.

"Um, you're welcome...?" He managed. It was a strange thing, but it wasn't talking to him like the others had. "Least I can do."

Looking behind the little robot at the shadowed structure, Edmund decided to go see if the shuttle was that way. As he wandered about the structure, looking up at it as he walked, another beeping noise made him stop, and he turned to see the robot he had freed.

"Oh, you again." He said to it. "Quite friendly, aren't you?" It made a noise in response, but nothing Edmund could understand. "Am I your friend now? I don't know if you have a name, but do you mind me giving you one?"

He thought on this, trying to decide a name. Weird to think he was giving a name to a robot.

Finally, he had an idea.

"For some reason, you remind me of a horse I had. He was my best friend, to tell you the truth, but he was friendly like you. May I call you 'Bucephalus', little one?" The robot beeped in what sounded vaguely like a happy tone, so Edmund was going to take that as a yes. "Bucephalus it is then."

Continuing on, Bucephalus followed with him. Edmund found he didn't really mind the company of the robot, at least having someone to talk to while he wandered.

Going up an incline, Edmund saw what looked like a hatch or a door, and above it read 'shuttle station'. Edmund tried to get it open, pressing the button on the side of the door, but it wasn't working. He heard a beep from behind him and Bucephalus floated past him and to the door. The robot then deployed something, a lazer gun maybe, and it started to cut open the door, sparks flying. Edmund, impressed, watched the robot do its work. When it was done, Bucephalus floated back to Edmund and the door popped open.

"Thank you." He said, looking up at Bucephalus for a moment before going to the door and pulling it open the rest of the way. Once he stepped inside, Edmund glanced back at the robot to see it move in a circle before turning and heading off into the dark.

 _'You can't come with me, I know. But, regardless, you're a good robot.'_ He thought before he pulled the door shut behind him.

Edmund saw that the interior was overgrown with sea life form the ocean floor, but he was able to make out a panel for the Omnitool to be scanned; to open the interior door. He swiped it across the panel and watched as the water drained from around him, an alarm sounding at the same time. He realized he must be standing in an airlock of sorts.

When the water was drained and the alarm stopped, the door in front of him opened. It was all dark ahead, and Edmund took in a breath before moving forward. The instant he stepped into the dark, however, lights appeared, as if from a flashlight.

 _'But I'm not...'_ He never finished his thought, another possibility coming to mind. He moved his head; the light followed his line of vision. The light was coming from him, from his eyes maybe.

This was just getting more unsettling by the minute, and he was starting to believe more and more into his theory that he was no longer Human. Lights did not come from Human's eyes after all.

Even with the lights that he could suddenly produce, there wasn't much to see of the corridor that he was walking through; bland metal all around. The corridor opened up into a room where he saw what somewhat resembled subway trains, and he could only assume these were the shuttles. In the back of the room he saw a panel opened up, and approaching it, he saw it said there was insufficient power, meaning he had to find a way to get the power on.

Looking around, he did find another door, but he couldn't get through. The tunnel behind one of the shuttles though he noticed was open, and since the only other way he could go was the way he came, he went behind the shuttle and into the tunnel. Edmund noted that the inside of the tunnel was lit with dim red lights, and found more of those black growths again, leaking black fluid like it was oil. Eventually, he came upon a room with an open door, so he entered the room.

As he did he saw something on the floor on the far side of the room and let out a startled yelp, nearly stumbling back out the door and into the tunnel.

"Don't hurt me..." They spoke.

Edmund, bracing himself on the doorway, took a moment to calm down, but there was nothing 'calm' about what he was seeing.

On the floor was a woman; surrounded by the black growths, her body resting upon them. Tubes and wires were coming from her body and going into a mass above her that kind of resembled lungs, and it was moving, like it was breathing for her. A couple more tubes went into a panel nearby, the screen on the panel glitching like the ones he'd seen in Upsilon. Her face... he'd seen her face before, and he remembered it was the same one from one of the I.D. card he'd found. Amy.

 _'You never made it to Theta...'_ Edmund realized.

He stepped back in the room, and willed himself to keep his voice steady. "C-Can you hear me? Is there... Is there anything I can...do to help?"

"It won't let me die." Amy said, sorrowfully. "Nothing is allowed to die."

Edmund cast his glance to the lung-like mass above her shoulder. He wondered if that was what she meant by 'it', but then again, her words didn't make much sense.

"What happened to you?" He asked instead.

"Tried to fix the power; it was an accident."

"I'm so sorry..." He looked up to the panel nearby and then back to Amy. "This is the power room then?"

Amy didn't say anything, so Edmund went over to the panel with the tubes going into it and took a look. He couldn't make out much; the screens were glitched and disjointed. The screens, the way those tubes ran into Amy- it reminded him all too much of the robot at the Upsilon generators. It reminded him of the robot with Carl's voice in the assembly line. But on that thought, he wondered if this thing running into both the panel and into Amy was draining power or disrupting it. If that was the case, then maybe pulling out the tube would restore power. He could then get the shuttles online and go to Lambda, to Anna.

But then if he did, would that kill Amy?

Edmund looked over to Amy, prone on the floor. She said that she'd been in an accident and that 'it' wouldn't let her die. Assuming that thing by her shoulder was keeping her alive against her will, then wouldn't it be better just to end her suffering? Edmund certainly thought that was no way to live. He flashed back to the first robot he'd seen, watching the light flicker out, but this... this was different, right? Still...

 _'I wouldn't want to live like that.'_ Edmund thought. _'I'm sorry.'_

Edmund put his hands around the tube, closed his eyes, and pulled it out. He heard a gasp and something sparking. Opening his eyes, Edmund saw that the screen had stabilized; everything was online except for safety systems. He could continue on.

He gave one last glance to Amy, still on the floor. The lung-like mass had stopped moving and she stared ahead into nothing. He'd been right in his theory.

 _'Just like the others.'_ He thought, going over to Amy and kneeling down beside her. He closed her eyes, hoping she was at least at peace now. _'Forgive me...'_

Edmund got up and left the room to head back to the shuttle, trying not to think about Amy.

Once he reached the shuttles, he flipped the breaker to bring emergency power back to the room and then pried open one of the shuttles. It wasn't operational, but Edmund did find a tablet inside. Turning on the tablet, he found a file labeled 'Impact Event' and opened it up. Giving the file a quick read, the information confirmed his suspicions on what had been referenced in the coms center.

It said the comet Telos had crashed into the Earth, into the Pacific Ocean, rendering the surface uninhabitable. The impact date was January 12, so some time before he woke up in Upsilon. However, this information meant the people who were stationed on Pathos II had been the last of Humanity.

 _'That explains what happened on the surface.'_ Edmund realized. _'I can't imagine what had been going through these people's minds, but it doesn't explain what happened down here.'_

Closing the file and exiting the shuttle, he went over to the other one and was able to get it open, finding it functional. He got in and sat down in the front seat of the shuttle. Looking at the controls, there didn't appear to be much, although there was a space for the Omnitool. Once he put that in the slot, the screen beside it asked which location he wanted to go to. Edmund inputted Lambda as the destination and flipped the switches on the same panel.

The doors closed and the other screens came to life. The tunnel before him opened, and Edmund felt the shuttle start to move. And so it did, off into the dark tunnel and to Lambda.

The screen to his right said it would only take a couple minutes to get to Lambda, so Edmund leaned back in the chair and relaxed, or tried to anyway. Amy was still on his mind, knowing he had released her from the hold of that thing, but also knowing he'd technically killed her, just like that robot in Upsilon. He could reason that he needed to get power flowing again, but... Amy had not been a robot. She had been Human; the first Human he had seen since he woke. It was a bittersweet dilemma...

He was taken out of these thoughts when a screen came down in front of him and lit up, reading Pathos II and began to play a video.

Images appeared on the screen as the video explained Pathos II to him. This place was apparently a mining operation to begin with, but then turned into an underwater research institute that had a variety of projects people were working on. It spanned over quite a few sectors and, most notably, it housed something called the 'Omega Space Gun', which shot objects into space. The video then informed him of the place he was going, Lambda, and said it doubled as a shipping dock and transportation center. The video cut out then and folded back up into the roof of the shuttle.

 _'At least I know a bit about where I am now.'_ Edmund thought. This was indeed a place of research, like he had suspected, one that existed underwater. Having never heard of this place, it must have been built decades after he went in for his scan- the 60's, the video had said; possibly around 2060, considering he was a century forward in time, something he still didn't understand.

Suddenly, an alarm started to go off, and Edmund looked around at the controls to see what was wrong. 'Power unstable' the screen to his right said a moment before the lights went out. He clutched the seat as the shuttle hit something, the glass on the front of the shuttle cracking.

Before he knew it, the shuttle slammed into something, hitting a corner wrong, and it threw him forward. He didn't know what he hit, but he didn't see, as he hit something and lost consciousness once more.

 

* * *

 

She didn't know how much time had passed between when she had lost contact with Edmund and now. She wasn't keeping track.

The last she had heard, Edmund was in the coms center, which was about to come down around him. She'd urged him to leave and come to Lambda, but then the line cut off, leaving the fate of Edmund unknown to her. Edmund hadn't responded since.

Surely he'd been able to get out of there before the coms center caved in, right...?

Pushing those thoughts aside for now, she returned to searching through the computers, trying to find the files she was looking for. These terminals weren't exactly showing her anything, which was frustrating. She needed to know what happened to her project.

A noise sounded from somewhere nearby and she froze, startled.

There was no one else here with her in the room, and from what she could tell, it was empty all around her; strangely void of people. That noise almost sounded like there was someone else here, but she was alone. She was alone, wasn't she?

 _'Must be Lambda itself.'_ She reasoned, although she would admit, something didn't feel right. Something wasn't right here.

She was going to return to searching through the computers again, but then a notification popped up on another screen. Turning to it, she saw it was an alert for the shuttle system. A section was sealed for a suspected hull breach and a shuttle had just crashed.

_'Edmund.'_

 

* * *

 

_"Edmund. Edmund..."_

_Someone was calling him._

_'Caroline.'_

_"Edmund, are you alright?"_

_He opened his eyes and turned his head. She was there in the car with him._

_"Y-Yes; it's merely a headache." He said._

_She placed a hand on his back, rubbing in slow circles. She then handed him a bottle of some liquid. "Here."_

_He looked at it, confused. It was orange. "Ah, not that. It's for the brain scan later."_

_"It's just water, Edmund."_

_He blinked and then rubbed at his eyes. Sure enough, when he looked at it again it was just water. "Oh... I'm sorry, Caroline; my head must still be a bit scrambled from the accident."_

_A frown settled on her face. "Are you sure you're okay?"_

_He hesitated, unsure of the answer himself. He forced a smile for her instead, trying to soothe her worry. "I'll be fine, I assure you."_

_As he spoke though, he felt something wet on his upper lip._

_"...Edmund, you're bleeding."_

_He put a hand under his nose, putting two and two together. When he pulled his hand away, he found blood on his fingers. He stared at them for a moment before looking up._

_He opened his mouth to speak, but never got that far, as there was the sound of a car horn, the screeching of brakes, and something slammed into the car._

 

* * *

 

It was dark all around Edmund as he woke with a jolt, hearing the sound of the alarm still, and his vision glitching in and out of focus. He found himself on the floor of the shuttle and near the right side panel.

He was in the shuttle, not the car.

 _'Just a dream.'_ He told himself. _'It was just a dream. I'm still here, unfortunately.'_

His breathing was heavy as he got up off the floor, using the chair for support. Bracing himself on it, Edmund surveyed the damage. The glass in front of him was badly cracked, but not broken. Everything else was offline and the shuttle wasn't moving. He realized that the shuttle must have crashed.

On the floor near the seat, he found a button that read 'push in event of emergency'. Though sore, Edmund knelt down and pushed it. He heard a hiss and was slightly started by the front of the shuttle detach and pop open, flying forward onto the floor of the tunnel. Ahead of him was all red, water accumulated on the floor of the tunnel.

He wasn't sure what had made the shuttle crash, but he knew he wasn't going anywhere by sitting here. The only other way to get to Lambda now was to move forward down the tunnel. Hopefully, he was close.

Edmund grabbed the Omnitool from the control panel and got out of the shuttle, his feet making a splash as he stepped into the water.

Leaving the crashed shuttle behind, Edmund started to head down the tunnel to wherever it was going to lead, moving slightly slower than normal because of the water that easily went up to almost his knees. The red lights that hung from the ceiling were the only thing lighting his way, and made things seem a bit creepy.

Suddenly, he heard what sounded like a phone ringing. It was faint, but echoing. It was coming from somewhere ahead. Taking a few steps further, the ringing got louder. Seeking out the source of the noise, he found attached to the wall was something like one of those intercoms he could read, but this was different in design. This is where the noise was coming from though; someone was calling him. Pressing a button on it, the small screen showed that he was connected, and a voice came through.

"Edmund? Edmund are you there?"

It was Anna's voice. He was glad to hear her voice.

"Anna! Yes, it's me. How did you-" He started.

She interrupted with a question, sounding concerned. "Are you alright? I detected something happened in the tunnel."

"I'm fine, I think. I was heading to Lambda, but the shuttle crashed. I got knocked out for a moment, but I was able to get out. I don't know exactly why the shuttle crashed, but there's water in here."

"That explains it- there was a suspected hull breach; the section you're in has been sealed off to prevent a collapse of the structure."

"I see..." If it was sealed, then he might not be able to get to Lambda. "Is there another way out of here?"

"There's a maintenance shaft up ahead; you can use that." Anna informed him. "You're not too far from Lambda actually. You're close enough to walk."

"Thank you, Anna. I'll be there soon."

"It's no prob- wait." There was a pause, and then he heard Anna mutter something. "I gotta go, Edmund."

The call ended and left Edmund staring at a black screen. He was confused by Anna abruptly ending the call; it worried him. He hoped everything was alright in Lambda, that Anna was okay. She was the only source of constant contact he had managed down here; the only company he had.

Edmund continued down the tunnel until he found the maintenance hatch. He knelt down next to it and pulled it open, the interior reminding him of the vents he had crawled through in Upsilon. Getting down onto his hands and knees, he crawled through the tunnel, seeing a ladder at the end. Once he reached the ladder, he got up off the floor and started to climb the ladder.

At the top, he found himself in some kind of room, as finding a place to swipe the Omnitool. Once he did that, the hatch behind him sealed and the familiar alarm started. It was the same one from the airlock as he entered the shuttle station, but this time, he quickly learned that the room was filling up with water. He didn't need to worry about it, since he apparently could breathe underwater

When the process was complete, water completely filling the room, the door in front of him opened and once again, he was faced with the dark, vast ocean.

Stepping out into the dark, it was difficult to make things out, as there weren't really any lights near to guide him. However, he remembered that the tunnel had been running off to his right, so perhaps if the went that way, he would find his way to Lambda.

Setting his path, Edmund moved forward and kept his eyes open for any signs of lights or structures. He hoped he was going the right way at least; that and hoping he didn't accidentally step off an underwater cliff and fall into darkness.

Eventually, after some wandering, Edmund did find a sign that read Lambda. He didn't necessarily see any structure yet, but if he moved forward he was sure to find something as well as a way in.

After continuing on for another few minutes, Edmund came across a yellowish green light and ran up to it, or as much as he could underwater. The light was semi enclosed, above a door, but read Lambda on it. Edmund pushed the button on the panel beside the door, and the way to Lambda opened.

Edmund stepped inside another airlock and swiped the Omnitool across the panel where it was to be scanned. Then he waited patiently for the water to drain.

When the interior door opened, he found that the inside of Lambda was at least somewhat lit, thought looked just as worn down as everywhere else he had been thus far. A corridor lay before him, with one room immediately off to his left from where he stood. A quick peak inside revealed little aside from some suits like at Upsilon and a locker.

 _'Anna's around here somewhere.'_ Edmund thought. _'I just have to find her.'_

He started down the corridor, looking around at the walls and keeping his eyes pealed for any sign of Anna. However, he stopped when his vision glitched harshly without warning. It made him sway and he put a hand to his head in an attempt to steady himself, but then he heard Anna's voice call out.

"Get out of here! This is important you-"

There was a crash and the sound of Anna screaming. Edmund forgot about his glitching vision, worry and fear spiking instead.

"A-Anna?!" Edmund called out, taking a cautious step forward.

"Edmund, hush!" She replied as he approached a crossroads. "Whatever you do, don't look at it!"

"Don't look at wh-"

His vision glitched again as if in warning, though not as strong as before. He looked around, but then he caught sight of a mess of blue lights... on top of a body that was moving.

Another creature.

Edmund started backwards, but then turned and took off back down the corridor. He needed to find someplace to hide. He remembered two rooms he had passed by before, but they were both locked. The only room he could possibly hide in was the one back by the door.

He hurried into the room, but as he feared, there wasn't really anywhere to hide. He was cornered... Or so he thought he was cornered, until he remembered what Anna said. Anna had said not to look at it. It seemed silly, but maybe if he didn't look at it, then it would go away. Maybe it was a longshot, but it was the only option he had.

He ducked behind some boxes in the room and waited, listening to see if the creature out there was coming any closer. He heard something and his vision glitched, but he couldn't tell if it was coming near or not.

After a moment, it grew quiet again and he heard Anna's voice once more.

"I think it's safe to come out now, Edmund." She said. "I'm down toward the end of the hall."

Slowly, he got out of his hiding place and peaked out the door. He didn't see the blue lights anymore and could only assume it was gone, like she said. His vision was back to normal as well too. His vision had done that around both of the creatures he had seen, and wondered if it was some kind of reaction from being in their proximity. Ether that or it was somehow tied into his body's reactions to fear, or anxiety, or stress.

He started down the corridor once more.

"Anna?" He called. "Are you there?"

"Yes. Dammit..." Her voice sounded weaker. "I'm hurt..."

He bristled. Had that thing hurt her?

"Hang in there, I'm coming."

Edmund came to the crossroads once more, and looking around, he found an open room. He stepped into the room and looked around. There were a couple computers here and there, a window viewing the outside straight ahead, something knocked over near him, and what looked like another communications array. There was no one in here, but near that array he saw something on the floor, something with a flickering screen and a twitching robotic limb-

Edmund's heart sank.

_'No...'_

He stepped closer to the amalgamation of a robot, hoping it wasn't what he was starting to think it was, and it spoke.

"Edmund? Is... Is that you?"

A fragmented, barely recognizable image of Anna's face appeared on it. It was her.

"Yes." Edmund got closer to the robot and kneeled down next to it. "You _are_ Anna, aren't you?"

"Of course I am." She answered.

"You're... You're another robot. I thought you were Human."

"I _am_ still here, Edmund. Well here in the sense that myself is still here."

"But you're not-" He hung his head in defeat, avoiding looking at Anna. "This is madness; bloody madness. I don't know if I can take much more of this."

He was quiet then, not knowing what to do. His only hope at finding answers wasn't Human herself after all, and the world far above them- well, there was nothing to go back to. What was he supposed to do with all that information?

Then Anna spoke again, distracting him. "If it's any consolation, I kind of thought you might have been another Human as well."

Edmund turned his head to her. "You did?"

"I haven't seen anyone else around here; no one. So yes."

Just like him; he hadn't seen anyone ether aside from Amy and those robots. But that aside, her words made that familiar line of thought come back, and it only seemed to imply what he had questioned after he woke up in the flooded coms room. Something he had realized with dread might be plausible.

"Anna... w-what am I right now?"

"What?" She replied as if it was a ridiculous question.

"You said you thought I was another Human. What do I look like to you now? What do I look like?"

"Hm... You're basically a walking and talking dive suit with various electronics attached. Did...you not know?"

Edmund stared at Anna, the fragmented image of her flickering on the screen. She had only confirmed what he had dreadfully suspected.

"No. So, I'm not Human after all. I'm like those robots that were talking like they were people; like you." He gave a mournful sigh. "That certainly explains a few things..."

"Not the answers you were hoping for?"

"Not at all. Lord, how did I end up turned into a robot at the bottom of the ocean? How have I been asleep for a century?"

"A century?" Anna repeated, sounding surprised. "Are- you were serious about that?"

"Yes. And how did you even get like this, Anna?"

"I just- I kinda woke up here, like you. When I woke, I heard static... and then your voice."

"Maybe connecting with Lambda woke you from whatever sleep you were in somehow." Edmund pondered aloud. "You don't have any idea what's really going on here, do you?"

"Only as much as you know, I think."

"Do you know about what's happened on the surface? About the impact?"

"That? Yeah... I do know about the event." She answered sadly. "The comet Telos crashing into the Earth and making the residents of Pathos II the last of Humanity. None of us would ever forget. All efforts to prevent impact had failed and while we were safe down here, we had a death sentence placed on our heads; an expiration date. That's when I started working on the ARK."

"The ARK?" He questioned.

"My idea that was going to save Humanity. It was an ongoing project that, after the comet, became our last hope, but I have no idea what's happened to it now. I was trying to find any information on the ARK when that creature knocked me to the ground. If you could, Edmund, can you help fix me so I can resume my search?"

Edmund looked over Anna's mechanical body, knowing this was far out of his league. "I'm not good with machines. Like I said, I'm an astronomer, not a mechanic."

"Hm... Oh! You have an Omnitool!"

He looked to the Omnitool attached to the belt of the dive suit... which was apparently his skin now. "Yes." He took it off the belt and held it out for Anna to see, if she could anyway. Edmund was assuming she could somehow 'see'. "I, um, picked it up at Upsilon."

"That's perfect!" She exclaimed. "You can put my cortex chip in there. Just put the Omnitool into the terminal and switch out the cortex chips."

"Alright." Edmund found the terminal on the other side of the room and put the Omnitool in the required slot. Once the computer was started up, he returned to Anna. "It's on."

"Good, now just switch the chips."

The screen went dark and the metal body fell still. For a moment, Edmund thought she had shorted out, but then a panel popped open and a yellow cartage stuck out of the body. Picking it up, it was the same color as the cortex chip he'd found in Upsilon, however, this one had a tiny amount of the black growth, spotted electric blue. The sight of it made him uneasy, but he took out the old cortex chip from the Omnitool and inserted the new one.

After a moment, Anna's face appeared again, holding the same smiling expression.

 

* * *

 

Her view changed, going black for a moment, and then suddenly finding that Edmund was in front of her, or rather the dive suit with Edmund in it. Anna could only assume she was now in the computer terminal and no longer on the floor. The jump from one place to the other was jumbled and weird, but it was kind of a relief being out of that broken body.

"Much better." She sighed contently. "Weird, but better. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Anna. So, what is this ARK that you were working on?" 

"The ARK? In it's simplest explanation, the ARK is sort of like a storage of brain scans I made of the people here on Pathos II." She explained to Edmund. "Inside the ARK though, there is an artificial world where the scans of those people reside. The objective was to launch the ARK into space with the scans on board, a fragment of Humanity living on. Call it an act of preservation if you will."

"Thus why it's called the ARK. Intriguing..."

Anna couldn't read expressions on him, mostly because he didn't exactly have a face, but she did detect the hint of interest in his voice.

"You... think it's 'intriguing'?" She asked.

"This kind of technology wasn't exactly around in my time. Yes, there were virtual reality devices around here and there, but nothing like this. I may be just an astronomer, but the concept you present is interesting. The fact that you were able to do something of this caliber- And you headed this project?"

"For the most part. One of my close friends in the Ring stumbled upon the idea that inspired me, and then I started work on the ARK from there."

" 'The Ring'?"

Anna realized what she had mentioned and remembered Edmund wasn't from around here, from this time; he wouldn't know what she was talking about.

"Ah, another story; doesn't have anything to do with how we are now."

"How far did you get with the ARK project?" Edmund asked.

"Hard to tell." She admitted. "Before waking, my last memory was conducting my own brain scan. I did the first one, to make sure it worked. Waking up here, though not as much time had passed as you, I was confused, but I knew I was Anna, the consciousness of her, even in a different body. I just... wasn't the 'Anna' I was before. That previous version of me- for all I know she could have finished the ARK and launched it already. That's what I was trying to find out."

"If you're a scan of the previous Anna, does the same apply to the robots? The ones that were talking; are they scans too? And me- Is... Is that why I'm like this?"

"It seems possible. The method of the brain scans goes back quite a ways, but I don't know any Edmund Hewlett beside you. The name is kind of unique."

"O-Oh, do you think so?"

Anna almost giggled; he sounded a bit flustered at the compliment. "Yeah. I don't think it's a name I would forget. Though the previous 'Anna' could have scanned an 'Edmund Hewlett'."

"I think I would have remembered a face as lovely as yours."

She didn't know if he had meant to say that or not, but she caught it and the words resonated in her. That had been... a really sweet thing of him to say.

Edmund, however, seeming to realize what he said, turned his head away, as if embarrassed. Anna decided to continue the conversation. "Um, who conducted your scan? Do you recall?"

He looked back at her. "I think if I remember correctly it was some man named Sackett."

"The name rings a bell. As for the robots, that could be the case, but I'm not sure. I'd imagine they'd have more sense like you and I do."

"I don't know." Edmund said doubtfully. "They sure acted as if they were people. Did you find anything on the ARK?"

"Oh, right; sidetracked. Give me a minute."

Anna concentrated and began searching through the terminal; through the computer system. Whenever Edmund had put her into the Omnitool, Anna had felt herself connect to something, likely the terminal via the Omnitool. All she had to do was focus and search, like she was sending some sort of telepathic message. At the same time it sort of felt like she was sinking, drifting away from Edmund.

Her search lead her down into a backup server, and there something came up, something with the word ARK.

"Okay, I got something from the backup server." Still down in the rabbit hole, she managed to get the backup server online. However, she couldn't go any further than that and withdrew. "Edmund, could you perhaps go to the computer and take a look for me? I can't seem to get to the files in this state."

"Sure, where is it?"

"In another room; just let me get the locks undone for you-" Anna dove back in and brought up the security panel, setting a command to unlock the doors. "Alright, you're good."

Edmund gave a nod and started out of the room. Anna watched him go, watched him disappear through the door, and then she turned back to her wondering about a few questions she had herself.

Anna had never been to Lambda before, but she could tell that something wasn't right here. And the systems she had been able to look through didn't give her much answers at all. From what data she could recover, something had happened alright. The tower, the dock, the welcome center- she couldn't get anything about those parts of Lambda, like they were gone.

Then there was Edmund. Edmund who had realized the condition of his body. Anna couldn't blame him for seeming to just give up back there. She had been honest when she said she thought he might have been Human. The fact he suddenly was here, when he had his brain scanned a century ago, 2014 if she was correct, was puzzling, especially since he was not a member of Pathos II.

She couldn't make sense of it.

"By the way, you said you were from Edinburgh?" Anna asked in an attempt to figure out the puzzle.

"Yes. Scotland." Edmund replied. He was in another room not too far away, but he could hear him still; see him through cameras and hear the audio via the terminal.

"And you said you were there for a brain scan?"

"It was part of some new experimental treatment. I went in to have it done, and as it happened there was a flash of white light. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in a dark room in Upsilon. Who thought sending an astronomer to the bottom of the ocean was a good idea?"

"Don't know, but it doesn't make sense. Why would someone bring a century old brain scan down here, and from Edinburgh? Why did you need this 'treatment' to begin with?"

"That..." Edmund sounded hesitant. "That's another story."

It was an echo to her own words, but something told Anna not to push the topic.

Suddenly there was a noise, echoing down to her. "Edmund?"

"I heard it." Came the reply, sounding anxious.

"Is it the creature?"

Had it come back? Or had it never left if it was still here? Anna found herself worried; not for herself, but for Edmund, who was wandering those halls where that thing could possibly lying in wait-

"Oh. It's just something outside." Edmund finally replied. "There's a robot that keeps running into the window in here; over and over."

"That's... good... I guess."

That was another thing that concerned Anna. Back when she had contacted him at Upsilon, Edmund had spoken briefly of a creature. She wondered if the one from before had knocked her to the ground and then vanished was the same one Edmund saw. However, if that was so, then wouldn't it stand to reason there was more than one?

It was concerning... and frightening.

 

* * *

 

Wandering into another room, Edmund found a computer that was online. Approaching it, he saw that the screen read 'data recovered: ARK'.

"Anna, I think I found something." He said aloud, knowing she would hear him. "This computer here says it has data on the ARK."

"That's great. See what it has to say."

Edmund loaded it up to find files related to the ARK, as well as two files related to surveys. He decided to take a quick peak at the surveys and found three, each with a name and image.

 _'Sally Townsend, Abraham Woodhull, and Benedict Arnold.'_ He observed. Clicking on the first one, Sally, and audio file started to play. He heard Anna asking Sally a question; what she thought of the ARK. Sally talked about how she was hesitant about the idea, but ultimately thought that it should be attempted anyway, seeing as they had nothing else to lose.

"Oh, you found the old interviews I did." Anna's voice spoke up. "That's Sally; the sister of one of my friends."

"There are two more here. One labeled Abraham Woodhull, and one Benedict Arnold."

"Abe..." Anna's voice whispered.

"A friend of yours?"

"We were once more than friends..." She said wistfully. "But things didn't- they didn't exactly work out."

"What of this Benedict Arnold?" Edmund continued.

"Didn't know him well. To be fair, I never liked the guy."

"So, you interviewed these three about the ARK. I see Sally was all in for it, but what did Abraham and Benedict think?"

"They were in favor. Most of the interviews I did were in favor of the ARK; it was a pretty big deal."

"I gathered as much from what you've told me." Edmund said as he exited the interviews and started looking through the ARK files. The section titled 'Environments' showed something like a city out of a science fiction book. "Is this inside the ARK? It looks... wonderful."

"Early renders." Anna replied. "I don't really have much of an idea what it looks like in there."

It really did look nice. Futuristic, yes, but maybe, up on the surface, that's what some places had looked like before the comet hit. He next went into the schematics of the ARK finding it resembled an oversized tool box. It was... different than he imagined.

There was another file that was some sort of tracker that he went into after looking over the images.

"Anna, there's a tracker here." Edmund said as an image of a couple planets appeared. He went for the obvious choice and clicked on Earth, which then brought an image of the globe. He next clicked on a section of the Atlantic Ocean that showed water and a portion of Africa to the right.

"Oh, that's good. Does it work?"

"Yes, I'm trying to locate the ARK right now. Give me a minute or two."

The section he had clicked on turned out to be the right one and he was then brought to a map of Pathos II, with all the different sectors. Edmund thought on this for a moment, trying to decide which one to start with. He hoped it wasn't at Upsilon; he didn't know how he could get back there, or even if he wanted to with that thing roaming around in the plant.

He tried Lambda first, but of course it came up with nothing. He then followed the line and tried Theta; nothing. Nothing from Delta, or Omnicron. He couldn't even click on Omega, whatever that was. That left just two. He decided to try Tau first...

And the computer confirmed it was in Tau!

"I've got it!" He exclaimed to her. "Someplace called Tau."

"Oh no..." Anna lamented. "It's still here. They were so close too; the Omega Space Gun is at Phi. It's the only way to get the ARK off Earth. Why is the ARK at Tau? God dammit- It won't last down there..."

She sounded a bit upset, and Edmund wished there was something he could do. It sounded like this ARK meant a lot to her. If he was in her position, having worked on something on that kind of scale, only to find out it was never finished, he'd be upset too. He understood Anna's reaction in that matter, even if it sounded right out of a science fiction novel. If only he could do something to help her.

Then again, there might be...

"Anna," He began, trying to pick his words carefully. "by any chance, is there a way to get us both on the ARK? If we got to it, of course."

"It's possible, but I can't do much from here."

"Then... Then I'll just take you there. I'll get you to the ARK."

"What? I don't-" Anna sounded hesitant. "I'm not sure; that's risky. Are you sure you- Are you willing to do that?"

"I'm not necessarily Human anymore, Anna. I don't have anything better to be doing, and this ARK sounds very important to you. You never got to finish it or see the end result, according to what you told me. It'd only be fitting to finish what you started, you deserve to, and I would like to help you. I'll gladly take you to Tau to fetch the ARK, and then to Phi to launch it. Besides, there's still questions I need answered, and perhaps if I do this I can find some along the way."

She was quiet, and Edmund couldn't tell if she was thinking about it or not. Her image on the screen in the other room didn't portray any other expression besides the one that was there. The only hints of expression he could gather were gained by audio only. He could only assume she was thinking about it.

Then, she gave her answer.

"Alright. We'll go find the ARK." She proclaimed. "I want- I need to finish this; to give mankind a chance."

"That's the spirit." Edmund replied.

"But the problem is Tau and Phi are located in the Abyss. We need someway of getting down there. Ether we use the climber at Omicron, although we need a power suit for that, or the DUNBAT at Theta, assuming it still works."

"Let's..." Edmund pulled up the map of Pathos II, locating Theta. "It's a walk, but it's closer than Omicron. Let's try Theta first."

"We'll have to walk. I don't know if the shuttle is the best idea, considering the last one you were on crashed. The whole shuttle system could be unsafe to travel on."

"Then to Theta it is."

"Okay...." There was a brief pause. "Thank you, Edmund; for this. Helping me find the ARK."

"Ah, well, I-It's not a problem." If he could blush at that, her thanks and the soft tone of her voice in that moment, he would. "I just- I, um, felt bad that your project, a brilliant piece of work, was left unfinished. It sounds like you worked so hard on this, yet somehow it was left behind. Of course I'll help you."

"Let me just disconnect myself from the terminal so you can take the Omnitool."

"Will you be alright?" Edmund asked, a tad concerned at the word 'disconnect'.

"You don't need to worry about me, I will be perfectly fine."

The screen went blank and Edmund already found himself missing Anna's presence. Maybe that was just because she was literally the only other being he had down here to talk to, but he missed her already. In honesty, he did like her, and he did want to help her finish her project if it was that important to her. He respected her determination and dedication.

Edmund took the Omnitool from the terminal and left the room, heading back to the airlock.

 

* * *

 

The door opened into the dark ocean once more.

Edmund stepped across the threshold and looked around, trying to decide which direction to go in. He hadn't seen a full layout of Lambda while inside, so he didn't have much of a clue where to start.

"I don't remember the last time I was out here."

Anna's voice startled him. "Anna? Where-"

"Down here." She answered calmly. "The Omnitool."

Edmund lifted the Omnitool to his line of sight, seeing Anna's image there. "How are you doing that? I didn't think we'd be able to communicate once I removed you from the terminal."

"I didn't ether, and I'm not completely sure how I'm doing this... but I believe I bypassed the old Helper Jane module and was able to communicate through the speaker."

"Ah, well, that's good." He looked out into the ocean again, into the vast expanse. "Least I'll have you to talk to over this long journey we have ahead of us. You wouldn't happen to know which way to Theta, would you?"

"I can't exactly tell, being in the Omnitool and all."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Then, as he scanned the landscape, or what he could make out in front of him, he saw something he hadn't noticed before. "Anna, I see something."

"What? Let me see; turn the Omnitool toward it." Edmund did as she asked. "Hm... Get closer to it. I can't exactly tell from this distance or resolution."

Edmund took her nearer to the object, curious to see what it was himself. When they got close enough to it, the object appeared to be some sort of vessel; cylindrical in shape, a few red lights on it, and the door flown open. It looked liked it had crashed here.

"It's an escape vessel." Anna said.

"Do you think that could get us to Theta?"

"Not sure. I don't know if it's still working."

"Fair point." He agreed.

"Take me inside it and I'll see what I can do."

Edmund stepped into the vessel and located a terminal. He placed the Omnitool on the slot provided and Anna disappeared while the computer booted up. She reappeared once it was finished.

"Huh- what...?" She sounded a bit groggy. "Oh, right; the escape vessel."

"Are you alright, Anna?" It felt weird asking her that, given her present state, but he asked regardless.

"I'm fine; it's just a bit disorienting jumping from Omnitool to terminal. Now, let's see here... CURIE emergency vessel #4?"

"CUIRE?" Edmund repeated.

"It's a ship; made runs between Lambda and Lisbon. Lambda was the major docks of Pathos II, aside from having transports to other sectors as well as the surface. What's this doing away from the CURIE?"

"Not sure. Can you get it running?"

"I'll try."

There was the sound of something starting up, and Edmund almost thought that it was going to work and they could use this to travel to Theta instead. However, the vessel made a loud clanging and sputtering noise before it gave out and fell still.

"Guess that answers that question." Edmund remarked. "Back to plan A."

"Or-" Anna spoke up. "According to the data I can recover, CURIE crashed some time ago. That must be where this EV came from. The wreck is close, according to the data, so maybe we can find another one that works there."

"A ship wreck, you say?"

He did recall seeing the vague outline of a ship nearby on his way to Lambda. He hadn't bothered to go near it, nor did he think much of it at the time, but he remembered an approximation of where it was.

He could find it again.

"It's worth trying. Ether that or we walk."

"Then let's go. Let me save the security information first; it should help you get around."

Once she was done saving, she disconnected and Edmund took the Omnitool and attached it to his belt again.

Stepping out of the vessel, Edmund tried to retrace his steps and recall where he had seen the wreck. A line of lights came to mind that he had seen just beyond the initial Lambda sign. It was somewhere near there. There had been pieces of metal scattered nearby if he remembered correctly.

He made his way back to the line of lights and stared off once more into the dark. It almost felt like he was at the beginning of some grand quest, and in a sense, he was, except it was a rather dark quest set underwater.

"Here we go."

"Unto the breach?" Anna chimed in from the Omnitool.

"Unto the breach."

And so Edmund, with Anna in the Omnitool, started forward into the darkness, their path solely illuminated by the small lights at his feet.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I really did have him name the little robot Bucephalus. Thought it'd be cute.
> 
> I'm gonna do things a bit differently with Anna and the Omnitool then what it's actually like in the game. In the actual game, Catherine, while in the Omnitool, can't talk to Simon while she is disconnected from a terminal. Here, I'm making it so Anna can speak, given that she's sort of an A.I. at this point to allow more opportunities for dialogue between herself and Edmund as they continue to travel across Pathos II. There will still be times when Anna will not be able to speak to Edmund, but we'll come to that when we get there.
> 
> Also, once we get to Theta, you'll hear more about Anna and her friends, but for now there's a little side trip to make...


	3. CURIE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edmund and Anna are forced to make a side trip to the sunken CURIE in order to find an escape vessel to help them get to Theta. However, little do they know that something is waiting for them on the CURIE once they find it...

In all her time at Pathos II, Anna, as far as she could remember, had barely been outside. The actual outside, surrounded and enveloped by water at all turns. She hadn't traveled around in it ether like they were doing now.

Anna didn't even know that the CURIE had crashed. But how could she have known? Who she was now was an early brain scan from the previous Anna. She was still herself, but between now and then was lost on her, just like it was on Edmund, who had apparently woken 100 years after his own brain scan. He wasn't even from Pathos II; he was from Edinburgh. She was still trying to think about how he could have ended up down here.

She saw the dark ocean around her as Edmund moved forward, following the trail of lights that were normally used to guide transports in. It was a bit strange, as she wasn't technically moving. She was inside the Omnitool that was clipped to his belt. She merely existed here, and from here she observed. All she could do was observe.

Soon, they reached the last light on the trail, as Anna knew they would.

"See anything?" Anna asked Edmund.

"There's some metal here and there." He answered. "I remember this from before, so I think we're getting close."

She moved forward with him as they left the trail of lights and started to follow the trail of metal. Beams, walls, random machine parts- they were almost like breadcrumbs; large breadcrumbs. That's what Anna thought anyway. It was the only thing guiding them at the moment. It wasn't necessarily to their destination, which was Theta, but a side trip.

Although, Phi would be their ultimate end destination once they secured the ARK, and Theta was mere stop along the way, in order to get to the DUNBAT so they could get into the Abyss. The top priority was to make sure the ARK was safe, but first they had to get to Theta. If getting an escape vessel from the CURIE would help, then she had no problem with that.

Speaking of the ARK, Anna couldn't help but be a bit surprised that Edmund had decided to help her; to offer to take her to the ARK. She appreciated it, but she wasn't sure why he was helping her, even though he had given a reason. Before, she had done most of the work just constructing the ARK. When it was just a simple pet project, no one paid her and the idea much mind. No one offered to. It didn't bother Anna much, not minding going at it alone. That's exactly what she had done, the others only seeming to be interested once the comet took out the surface. Even then though, she saw that as a chance to prove what she could do; that her project wasn't a silly dream. She could make it work.

Considering she was here now, the brain scan procedure Anna had conducted on herself worked. She did remember that. Waking in Lambda, quickly figuring out her present state even if it unsettled her slightly, she had hoped her previous self had finished the project, but for some reason the previous Anna had come up short. Why had that happened? Was the ARK safe? She had to know...

But then Edmund had come along, and now here they were, making a side trip from Theta to find CURIE. There was still a chance to succeed where her previous self had failed. And Edmund, despite knowing what he was, had decided to help her.

Caught in these thoughts, she didn't notice when Edmund had stopped walking.

"I think I found it, Anna." He announced, getting her attention. "Or at least part of it."

The world moved, Edmund moving the Omnitool so she could see, and when it settled, the dark sight of the wreck loomed before her. She wasn't sure if this was the CURIE or not, it wasn't the first time something had crashed out near Lambda, but it looked like it might be.

"Let's find out." She insisted.

Edmund moved her toward a door with a single red light above it; on and illuminating the metal. Next to it was a panel that required the Omnitool. He moved her over the panel, and there was a brief moment of disconnection, but it didn't last too long.

"Whoa." She muttered.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, pulling her back and to where he could see his face. He sounded concerned.

"No, it's- When you moved me to that panel things kind of went blank for a few seconds; a disconnect."

"It must have been when I swiped the Omnitool over the panel to get the door to open. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I was just surprised."

Edmund clipped her back to the belt and he moved forward into the wreck. If it was possible, it appeared darker in here than it did outside. There were no lights here, not even the red emergency lights. All she could make out was that this place was left to rot in the depths; undersea plant life growing here and there and showing the wear of being submerged for so long.

Anna watched as Edmund went down a hall and pried open a door. She then detected a sudden light, not that it improved her sight much.

"Where did you get a flashlight?" Anna asked him.

"I... I, um, think that's coming from my eyes, actually." He replied, sounding a bit unsettled about it.

Anna was aware that he might still be trying to get his head around his new condition, so she didn't say anything more about it. She'd seen what had happened when he realized it, how he just seemed defeated until they started talking to each other. She didn't bother to ask if the lights he could suddenly project though were part of his transformation, choosing to observe the wreck instead.

She watched as things move upwards as he climbed up a ladder and then it seemed they were in a vent of sorts. After a few minutes of traversing that, they reached an opening, only to find they were on the other side of the wreckage he'd climbed into.

"That's it?" Anna asked, confused.

"Like I said, it may have been only part of it. Maybe it was a part that broke off and the real wreck is near."

"Maybe."

She moved with Edmund as they searched they area around them, looking for the main portion of the CURIE. Anna had never been aboard the CURIE, much less seen it, but she had heard it was a fairly big ship. What they had just been climbing through couldn't have been all of it.

Following the only way to go, they started up a hill. It was the only way to go, but maybe CURIE was on the other side.

At some point as they went up, Edmund stopped.

"Did you hear that?" He asked, voice quiet.

"Hear wha-" But then she heard it; a strange warped sound. It almost sounded like the creature who had thrown her to the ground just as Edmund had arrived at Lambda.

Things were still, but then the noise came again and she heard Edmund give a yelp as he moved backwards, and quickly. As he did, her vision turned a bit staticy.

"Edmund? Edmund what's going on?" She asked urgently, but there was no answer. It was like he couldn't hear her.

When things returned to normal, everything had fallen still again. She didn't hear the noise anymore, but she got the feeling Edmund had backtracked a little.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" Edmund asked.

Now Anna was really confused. "Did you not hear me at all?"

"I heard you say something, but I couldn't make it out. I couldn't hear you well."

That was troubling. He hadn't heard her? Why was that? Interference maybe?

"Are we still on the hill?" She asked, changing the subject.

"We are, but I'm hiding behind what seems to be a large sheet of metal. I thought I saw something up there atop the hill, but if something was there, it's gone now, I think."

Anna didn't like the sound of that.

"I'm starting to get the feeling we're not alone out here."

"I've had the same feeling since Upsilon." Edmund admitted. "We're certainly not alone, and not in the good way. And it's strange- whenever I'm near one of those things, my vision starts to glitch. I can't explain why, but it does."

"Some sort of interference maybe?" Anna offered. "A reaction to adrenaline, or stress, or fear?"

"I'm not sure. I was thinking that might be the case. It's been like this since Upslion."

They soon left the hiding spot and cautiously continued up the hill. They weren't jumped by anything at the top, thankfully, and the ground leveled out. Anna was starting to see more metal and machine parts appear in her window as they continued, and took that as a sign they were near CURIE.

"Anna, take a look." Edmund eventually said, bringing her up and showing her what he was seeing. She could just barely make it out, but if she had to guess, they'd found what they were looking for.

It was like some sunken oil rig from what she could make out, but based on pictures she had seen of the CURIE, they had found what they were looking for. She saw a shadowed, towering mass of what was probably part of the ship. Another portion of it that lay near also had the red lights atop it, as if it was some far off signal tower. It was split in giant pieces and scattered around them, making it seem almost like a graveyard. Anna felt small next to it, and not just because she was in an Omnitool.

"CURIE."

"Now we just need a way in."

He was right; they would need to go in to find what they were looking for, but at the same time, there was something about this place that was setting her on edge, something she couldn't explain yet.

And maybe that was because that creature at Lambda sounded vaguely familiar to the noise she had heard on the hill.

She sort of hoped, for both their sakes, Edmund had only thought he'd seen something on the hill.

 

* * *

 

After some wandering around and trying to find a way in, Edmund stumbled upon a hole big enough for him to crawl through. Making his way into the wreck, he looked up to find his path. He found a ladder nearby and saw it would take him to an upper level.

"Only way is up." He said to Anna before going to the ladder.

He climbed up and onto the metal platform at the top, then following some stairs. He'd never been on a ship or boat himself, much less anything like this. It was an eerie sort of atmosphere he found himself in; being in this sunken ship was creepy in general. Everything was colored in shades of blue, aside from the red emergency lights that lit up the stairways a bit. Things creaked around him as he went along, and he hoped the stairs wouldn't fall apart underneath him.

Edmund came to a door next to a red light and tried to open it. He was able to slide it back and revealed another hall lit by the red lights and overtaken by the sealife; undersea plants and other related things growing on the walls and floors, growing on everything around him. It almost made it look like the walls of some underwater canyon.

Not seeing anything yet that would lead him and Anna to an emergency vessel, he continued through the wreck. At the end of a hall and past a door Edmund found another set of stairs, leading up. It appeared now he was on the outside of the ship, whatever part he was in at present. Near him was another set leading down, but they were cut off; gone. Up was once again the only way to go.

"More to climb." He muttered.

"What? Too much for you?" Anna teased from the Omnitool.

"No, it's not that. They make me a bit nervous is all; there may well be a risk of collapse."

"Ah, good point."

He continued, carefully ascending the stairs; listening to the metal creak with each step he took. He spared a few glances out at the scenery, but there wasn't much to see at all. It was the same darkness and water.

After a few flights, he reached the top, another door with another red light above it. He managed to get it open, and he stepped into another hall. In that hall, there was a window nearby, and through the window he could see a sign that read 'emergency shuttle'.

 _'The question is, how do I get from here to there?'_ He asked himself, a metal wall and these windows in between him and the shuttles. He didn't really see anything he could use to break the window with ether. But there had to be someway to get from point A to point B.

"Anna, I found where the vessels are," He informed Anna. "but I can't exactly get there from here."

"Is there another way?"

"I'm looking..."

"There must be a way to them; hopefully to one that works."

"I know." Edmund looked around some more, and spotted a door nearby. Hopefully this would set him on a path toward the escape vessels, and, like Anna said, one that worked.

As he opened the door, he entered the next hall, bringing up the lights in his eyes to see better. They weren't essentially automatic as if they were a reaction and adjustment to dark and limited vision, but as he had been moving through the other part of the CURIE, Edmund had quickly caught on to turning the lights on and off if he so willed. It wasn't hard to get the hang of, rather it felt almost... involuntary, like it was an instinct already programmed into him; an order sent from his brain in the blink of an eye.

Starting down the hall he heard something, like a voice. He could barely hear it, but it was there.

 

>   _"...The sky is pitch black with smoke."_

 

It almost sounded like a radio transmission, and as he went down the hall, the words, though not much louder, were clearer. It sounded like it was coming from his right, more specificly a room he was approaching.

The door was open when he came upon the room, and Edmund took a peak inside to look around. He saw a television set with something displayed on it, but something else caught his eye before he could determine what it was.

There was a mass of blue lights, coming from the other side of the room, possibly thought a window. Edmund knew the shape of those lights, even as his vision glitched like a broken VHS.

In the moment of recognition, Edmund pulled back and pressed himself up against the wall, toggling the lights in his eyes to turn off and hoping the creature didn't see. It looked like the same on he'd seen at Lambda, and if it was then all he had to do was not look at it.

Unless, of course, it had already seen him and knew he was here.

Edmund stayed as still as he could, though he knew he was shaking. His vision still fluctuated, glitching in time with his pounding heart. He heard a soft crackle of static from the Omnitool at his belt and heard a hint of Anna's voice, but like on the hill he couldn't understand what she was saying.

After a moment, his sight returned to normal. Whenever it had done that around one of the creatures, it usually meant the danger had passed. The cause was unknown to him, but it acted like a warning as well as a reaction, so it seemed.

Deciding to dare a look, Edmund peeked once more into the room. Everything was the same, except the creature, if it was the creature, was gone. His glitchy sight was a mixed blessing.

Giving a sigh of relief, Edmund stepped into the space, which looked like some sort of break room, or lounge area; something of that nature. Although he was still wary. He knew it might not have gone far, even if it was gone from this room.

"Edmund?" Anna's voice spoke, clearer this time.

"Yes, I can hear you, Anna." He replied, though trying to keep his voice quiet. "Best not to talk so loud though, in case it hears us."

" 'It'? Do you mean-"

"Yes, the creature. I think it might be the same one from Lambda." He confirmed.

"I was wondering. When you jumped back out of the doorway, I thought I saw a flash of blue. I tried asking you what it was but you didn't respond. It was like on the hill."

"Then it must be causing some kind of disruption. The proximity of those creatures, whatever they are, cause distortion in my sight and your ability to speak."

"Strange."

Edmund nodded, and then turned his gaze up to the television set above and in a corner of the room. The image didn't change, but the voices said the same thing he'd heard before.

 

> _"...The sky is pitch black with smoke. The ocean is dark, incredibly dark. In the distance, I can see land- According to navigation it's Lisbon and the coast of Portugal. "_
> 
> _"Any signs of life? Over- Hopper?"_
> 
> _"It's on fire. Everything is on fire. The flames- they're reaching all the way into the sky. It's unreal."_
> 
> _"Any signs of life? Over."_
> 
> _"No. Nothing but a massive firestorm covering the continent."_

 

 "Is that what it was like up there? After the comet hit." Edmund asked, shocked by the words exchanged.

"According to the reports, yes." Anna answered sadly. "As far as I know it could still be like that up there."

"Dear Lord..."

Exiting the room, Edmund found a door across from him. He found it was another room upon opening it, but found a mass of black growths in a corner. They were here on the CURIE too.

 _'Why is this here?'_ He wondered. _'I thought it was just in Upsilon and Lambda. Hell, it could be all over Pathos II for all I know. It's widespread, whatever this is.'_

He continued to wander down the hall, keeping his lights on for the time being so he could actually see where he was going. But if that thing was still around, was it really the best idea to do so? Maybe he should keep them off, just in case, even if it meant he couldn't see much. He'd at least know if he ran into the creature again; those lights could probably light up any room or hall. That and his warning system of glitchy vision would tell him.

In his exploring, Edmund came upon a room with what looked like some kind of control system. He couldn't tell what it was though, as the screens had only static snow and were covered by black glowing growths.

This was another prevailing question he had. Just what were these masses that seemed to be in every place he went to? They shared the same colored glow as the creatures he had encountered, so were they somehow connected.

He exited this room as well, trying to decide which way to go. Just then, his vision glitched and he heard a noise; the same one from the hill and from Lambda. He turned his head to his left and caught a flash of blue from far away in the dark, but there was no mistaking what it was.

His direction made up for him, Edmund went the only way he could. Going down the hall as fast as he could, hoping not to trip on anything, he turned a corner and saw a glowing green sign; the same one he'd seen before that said 'emergency vessel'.

The sign was here, but he didn't see anything like a door. Had he just run into a dead end?

"Edmund, we have to move!" Anna urged in a hushed whisper. She too was trying to avoid alerting the creature to their presence. "It's going to come this way!"

"But I can't- there's not-" He looked around franticly, looking for an escape. Then he saw a wheel and a sign displaying a ladder.

There was the escape he needed.

He turned the wheel as fast as he could, bringing the ladder down. At the same time he kept looking down the hall for the creature. His vision was still a little out of focus, so he knew it was near, and getting nearer.

When the ladder came down, it clicked into place... very loudly.

He heard a screech, a strange sort of hiss, from down the hall and he jumped onto the ladder, starting to climb as fast as he could; the noise getting louder and his vision quickly going more and more out of focus. It glitched violently once and he almost let go of the ladder, but kept going, knowing he had to get away from what was bellow him.

It eased out once he reached the top, and he had to take a moment to just sit back away from the edge. He hoped that creature did not know how to climb.

"Edmund, are you alright?" Anna asked once it had gone quiet.

"I-I'm fine." He managed. "We got away... for the time being. That is most certainly the same kind of thing we saw at Lambda."

"I think you're right... Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes." He took a deep breath, trying to calm his heart. "That's the second time it's glitched that bad. It makes my head hurt when that happens; ripples through me."

"A mixed blessing." She mused.

"Indeed."

Taking a look around, Edmund saw they were in a room with a few ladders scattered here and there. However, the one he'd come up appeared to be the only one working. He got back to his feet, not even risking looking down the ladder he had just climbed up.

He went through a door and out into another hall, but what caught his attention was the emergency vessel sign.

Edmund hurried over to it. "I found it, Anna!"

He stepped though a corridor and into what he assumed what the emergency vessel, seeing a place to put the Omnitool. Anna asked Edmund to put her in the slot so she could take a look at it, and he did so, unclipping the Omnitool and connecting it to the terminal.

He watched as Anna's face appeared on the screen. "This- yes, this is one. I'll have to do a quick check, but I think it might work."

"Good. We can use this to get to Theta." Then he added, "More so we can get out of here. I have the feeling that's not the last we saw of that creature."

"Yeah, that thing is-" She went quiet for a moment, cutting off what she was saying. When she came back, she said, "It does appear to be working, despite sitting here all this time, but Safety locks are in place. I think we have to trigger a response."

Edmund tilted his head. "What kind of response?"

"This is an emergency vessel. I can't exactly bypass that protocol. We have to find a way to trigger it into activation."

"How do we do that?"

"I'm not sure. Trying hitting it with a wrench? Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

Edmund wished so badly he could crack a smile right now at the infamous reference. Some things never die, it seemed.

"Let's go find something to sabotage then."

 

* * *

 

By 'sabotage', Edmund wasn't exactly sure what they were going to do, but they needed to do something. They needed to get the escape vessel functioning.

The search took him into a large room which could have at one point possibly been refereed to as 'the bridge'. That's what it looked like anyway, despite all the algae and other evidence of the sea having claimed the CURIE as part of the environment.

Another voice over radio spoke as he observed the room.

 

> _"Attention crew, this is your captain speaking. The final efforts to stop the comet have officially failed. Impact is imminent."_

 

More talk of the comet; information he already knew. At this point it only served to remind himself and Anna that there was nothing left up there on the surface. If what he heard was correct, then everything was gone. This was long after Edmund's own time, but he couldn't have imagined what it was like for Anna.

Seeing an array of computers, he checked those to see if anything could be done, the words 'manual override' coming to mind.

"See anything?" Anna asked.

"Nothing much. I'm thinking a manual override instead of a sabotage, but with all of those growths everywhere it's hard to get a hold of anything. They like draining power from things, apparently, as well as forcing things to stay alive when they should be dead."

"...These black growths; can you show me?"

Edmund was slightly confused by the request, but unclipped the Omnitool form his belt and showed Anna a nearby mass.

"I... I think I may know what we're looking at here."

"You do?"

Edmund wanted to inquire further, but there was a flicker in his vision. He quickly turned, seeing nothing behind him, but he heard something far off.

"We have to keep moving." He said, clipping the Omnitool back to his belt. He left the warped computers behind and ascended some stairs, going through a door at the top. The captain's message played on repeat as he left the room.

He knew the creature might not be too far behind, but if it was up on this level that meant it ether somehow climbed up or teleported. Edmund didn't know which was worse.

He came across another room, much like the one he had been in before. Another message, likely repeating, played as he walked through the room, looking around.

 

> " _CURIE is safe while submerged. The crew- what's left of it- is doing okay. For the rest of the world, there's no easy way to describe it. The destruction is absolute. The surface is just... gone."  
>  _

 

Edmund looked around at a couple of the monitors, frozen on an image. There was one that unsettled him; an image some what he assumed was Earth, clouds swirling like giant hurricanes and obscuring everything.

Another room he found looked like a large storage area, a few things floating frozen around him in the water. He didn't really see anything in here that could help him, so he continued on, going up some steps.

Up on the walkway, he found an open door, and taking a look through that open door, he saw a catwalk going down the middle of the room.

"Anna, any idea where I am?" Edmund asked, looking for guidance.

"I wouldn't know. I've never been on board the CURIE." She replied.

"Oh, right. Sorry. Well, I'm in some sort of room, on a metal catwalk." His feet echoed on the metal floor as he moved down the cat walk. "There's branching pathways leading to... something. I'm not quite sure what it is but it looks mechanical. Those growths are here too, all over this room. They're attached to the machines."

Whatever these machines were, and whatever this room was, they were draining power. Edmund thought back to the computers, thinking that maybe they were linked into this and that maybe this was some kind of power source. If he disconnected these black tubes that ran to the growths, then maybe power could be restored to the terminals and he could find a manual override. Then they could get out of here and away from that creature. More importantly, they'd be on the way to Theta.

"I'm going to try something..."

Edmund went over to one of the machines and placed his hands on the tube. He then pulled on it and yanked it out. When he did, however, black smoke came pouring out and there was loud bang, and he had to take a step back away. When it cleared, he stared at it before moving onto the next.

He went to the next and did the same, though the reaction was also the same.

"What are you doing?" Anna exclaimed, noticing what Edmund was up to.

He started on a third. "I think we can get power back to the terminals if we just-"

When he managed to pull it free, there was an unexpected blowback, and Edmund was knocked back onto the main portion of the catwalk, hitting his head on the metal floor.

His vision blurred, and focused, but then began to glitch violently as a familiar mass of blue light on a humanoid body appeared on the other end of the catwalk.

"Edmund, get out of there!" He heard Anna yell, somehow through the static that sparked when she spoke.

He somehow managed to get to his feet, trying not to trip over himself as he hurried out of the room. Easier said than done- everything was shaking around him as if it was falling apart. Taking out those tubes had done the opposite of what he was expecting.

 

> _"Warning. Reactor collapse imminent. Proceed to emergency vessels."_

 

Yeah, that was definitely not what he had in mind.

The emergency vessels were now triggered, but he knew for certain that creature was after him now. It had seen him. No amount of not looking at it was going to help now.

Edmund hurried back along the way he came, down the stairs and into the storage room. The door he had come through earlier was lit with emergency lights, so he went along through there, desperately hoping perhaps he could lose this thing if he was quick enough. He just had to retrace his steps back down to the emergency vessel.

Alarms blared as he ran, his vision flickering and glitching constantly and making it difficult to navigate. Through his distorted sight, however, he was ale to keep an eye on the constant red lights at his feet that seemed to be lit up like they were a path; a path to the emergency shuttle.

He heard things falling apart, heard the creature's screaming hiss. If Anna was trying to say anything to him, he couldn't hear.

He went back through the 'bridge', turned a corner and went down the hall, following the light. At least he made one final turn and found the green lighted passage into the emergency vessel. Edmund heard one final scream and he went into the vessel and quickly closed the door behind him, then putting Anna into the Omnitool slot.

Her face appeared on the screen, a welcome sight, but Edmund could still hear that thing outside.

The barrage of questions was instant.

"Was that the creature? Did I hear 'reactor collapse imminent'? What did you do, Edmund?!"

"Anna, we need to leave! It's right outside!" Edmund urged.

"Okay, okay! Hang on."

The screens showed that the engines were starting up and the water was being filtered out of the space. Edmund still heard the banging outside, and worried it could somehow get in here. His heart was racing now, making his vision flicker out of fear.

There was a shudder and the vessel started to move. Edmund sat down in one of the seats, and once things had evened out, he spoke.

"Do you have a trajectory for Theta set in?"

"Got it covered; navigation says we'll be there soon."

"Have you flown one of these before?"

"Eh... not really? But I'm getting used to it."

"You're a fast learner." Edmund commented.

Anna chuckled, but changed the subject. "What happened back there anyway? I was able to catch a glimpse of that thing when it moved into my field of vision. And what happened to 'manual override'?"

"It didn't pan out." He replied. "I thought I could restore power to the terminals, but I wasn't anticipating a reactor collapse."

"You got the emergency vessel to come online, so ether way it worked. It's strange though; it looks like the WAU was preventing the reactor collapse and keeping the CURIE stable."

 _'WAU?'_ Edmund wondered. It was the first time he's heard of the term.

"The _what_?"

"The WAU, short for 'warden unit'." Anna explained. "Those black glowing masses- That's what I was going to tell you before; because I've seen it. I know the WAU. It's an A.I. that exists throughout Pathos II, but last I checked a malfunctioning one. It doesn't exactly think or feel like us, but it acts. It's like a cancer. Those masses we saw are the manifestation of it... But how did it even get on CURIE?"

"Whatever the reason, it's to be everywhere. It's in Upsilon, Lambda, CURIE- I think it might be connected to those creatures as well."

"You think so?"

"Maybe. It's the blue light- they share it."

So there was a name he could now place to this; not the monsters but the growths, an infection of sorts.

But now that he had mentioned the blue light, a dreadful thought was stirring in his head. His skin was speckled with bright blue dots, and the cortex chip on the Omnitool that had transferred Anna to it had similar, smaller looking growths with the blue light.

He remembered what Anna said at Lambda, but could this WAU have something to do with their condition?

Faintly, Edmund heard the sound of something exploding; somewhere from outside the vessel. He could only think of one place that could have come from.

"Was that CURIE?" He asked.

"Considering you made the reactor go into a collapse- yes." An alarm started to sound, followed by an exclamation of, "Shit, the shockwave's gonna hit us! Hold on!"

A moment later, the vessel shook, hard enough to throw Edmund off balance and to the floor. The vessel tilted sideways, the gravity making him fall into the seats.

"We're off the plateau; I'm gonna try and hit Delta to halt the momentum!"

"A-And if we don't?"

"We're dead."

And then something hit the vessel, for a second jarring a far away memory of a car crash in Edmund's mind.

 

* * *

 

None of the lights were on in the vessel when he came to; all he heard was a voice saying that some rescue team had been notified of their crash. Edmund knew better though; no one was coming to rescue them.

Edmund couldn't exactly make head or tails of his current surroundings, only that he was still in the vessel and it was now flooded with water. Whatever the vessel crashed into must have thrown him about on impact and knocked him out.

 _'That seems to be happening a lot lately.'_ Edmund remarked as he tried to get his bearings. He wasn't necessarily on the floor, but floating in the water, similar to when he woke up in the coms center. It was quiet in the vessel, but it almost felt like something was missing...

He was able to make out the terminal in the dark, enough to see that all the screens were black. The Omnitool was silent as well.

_'Anna!'_

He went over to the terminal and took the Omnitool out from it, turning it over in his hands and checking for damage. It looked unharmed, which was a relief, although he remembered Anna was inside it. He knew she was just a consciousness inside a door opener, but he did worry for her. What if the crash had somehow damaged her or cut him off from her?

The Omnitool suddenly lit up and Anna appeared, washing away his worry.

"Anna!" He exclaimed. "You're alright!"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"We crashed and everything in here was offline when I came to. I was concerned you were damaged. You appear to be fine though; the device is in tact. Maybe it was just because you were still connected to the terminal when we crashed. All the same, I'm glad you're safe."

"I... I, um- Thank you..." She said, a bit hushed for some reason. "I assure you, I'm fine. What about you?"

"A little banged up, but relatively uninjured." He looked around the vessel for the door, for a way out. He spotted the door above him, but not out of reach. He tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge.

"Jammed?"

"Maybe. It could also be wired to the vessel's power."

"In that case..." She trailed off.

"I know." Edmund finished for her. If that was the case, they were as good as trapped. He didn't even know if he could get the door open by brute force alone. Probably not.

A noise from outside caught Edmund's attention. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he heard something.

Just then a light appeared, sparking through the door. It moved down the seam of the door as if it was cutting it open. He'd seen this before...

_'Is that...?'_

When the light disappeared the door popped open. Edmund pushed it open the rest of the way, and a familiar face- screen- came into view.

"Bucephalus!" Edmund exclaimed, surprised to see the little robot again.

" 'Bucephalus'?" Anna chimed in.

He pulled the Omnitool up into his line of sight. Anna's expression stayed the same, as it always did. However, he wondered what kind of expression she might be making now if she could. Would it be an amused one? A skeptical one? He could only go by her voice alone to convey expressions.

"Yes. It freed us." Edmund turned the Omnitool to Bucephalus to show Anna.

"You cut open the door..." She said to it. "Thank you."

Bucephalus made a happy sounding beep before he clipped the Omnitool to his belt again and reached up to grab the edge of the door frame. He hoisted himself up and out of the crashed vessel, Bucephalus circling them all the while.

"Goodness- I wasn't expecting to see you again, Bucepahlus." He said, looking up at his robot friend.

"Did it follow us somehow?" Anna asked.

"It could have picked up on some kind of signal from the vessel and acted on command. That's plausible, although it's been quite friendly with me ever since I freed it. It was trapped under some rocks and it's been sticking close since. This wouldn't be the first time Bucepahlus has helped me."

"Must be thankful you saved it. Why the name though?"

"It was the name of a horse I had. The last I saw of my Bucephalus was after the... ah..." He hesitated, catching himself before he could let the words slip. He didn't like looking back on it, even if it did happen a century ago. He didn't know if he wanted to open himself up to those memories. "...It was sometime before the brain scan. My Bucephalus is long gone, obviously, but this robot... it reminded me of him for some reason. Bucepahlus was always a good friend."

"Nostalga... I think that's sweet. You're quite a kind soul, Edmund."

"Even if I'm a robot? Not Human?"

"You are still in there, right?" Anna asked, although it almost sounded like a riddle. "I see Edmund Hewlett; so yes."

That was debatable, and Edmund didn't know the answer to it, even though Anna stated hers. She worked with this technology, so of course she would know it better than anyone. She knew how this worked, and maybe she had accepted it quicker because of that. Edmund, however, was still grappling with it.

He had all the time in the world to do so though.

"So, are we at Delta?" Anna piped up. "Considering we didn't fall into the Abyss I'm going to assume we're at or near Delta."

Edmund looked around, spotting a structure with a glowing green sign near. He started walking towards it, with Anna in the Omnitool and Bucephalus following close by.

Approaching the structure, he saw that it was like a sphere being held up by pillars, though it looked just as ruined as everything else. Situated on top of this sphere was what looked like some kind of small radio tower; a red light atop it. Near that was the sign, which did indeed read as 'Delta'.

"We are here." He informed Anna.

Panels of metal floor lay out in front of him along the sea floor like a path, and he could make out what looked like green lights. They needed to find another way to Theta now that their only means of transportation had crashed, and maybe here at Delta they could salvage something. So, Edmund followed the metal floor path forward to the lights.

The path, occasionally bordered by small light posts, lead him into an area that almost looked like a setup for an underwater mine. Undersea plant life grew abundantly in this area, more so than Edmund had previously seen here. Tracks lay going around various machinery that was long out of use, a glowing sign for Delta attached to one. Edmund walked around one of these machinery structures and wandered into another area with a big square pit in it, railings bordering the edge.

Bucephalus made a beeping noise beside him, and Edmund nodded, taking a look at the pit.

"I agree. Don't wander too close to the edge."

Continuing on, Edmund found more machinery and various things that made him think about underwater mines. He also spotted a large rusted sign that read 'control room', and beyond that was a large open square area, a platform in the middle.

He took the Omnitool from the belt, showing her the platform. "Any idea what this is for?"

"Delta is a landing point for the Zeppelins; another form of transport, though mostly used for cargo." She explained. "They run to and from Theta. It's the main form of transportation to Delta, since it's kind of off on it's own."

"Do you think we could use one of these Zeppelins to get to Theta?"

"Worth a shot. I think it's the best option we've got."

If that was the plan, then the first thing to do was get a Zeppelin here. Edmund wasn't sure how he was going to do that, but he had to find a way.

He looked around and found a building with a Delta sign. Maybe in there could be something. He went over to the building, but found there wasn't a button or anything to open the door with. It was all overgrown. Bucephalus seemed to notice this problem, and came over to him. Edmund knew what his robot friend was about to do and took a step back. The lazer deployed and Bucephalus started to cut open the door. It beeped happily and circled around Edmund's head when it was done.

He reached a hand up and brushed his fingers against the robot's smooth skin. It almost reminded him of the Bucepahlus he knew before. "Thank you."

Edmund opened the door, finding that the inner door was open as well; the building was flooded. Beyond that however, in the room, he saw masses of the black growths, the WAU, everywhere. The room itself was heavily infected by it.

"I didn't know it was this bad." Anna whispered. "I've seen it, but... I didn't think things would get this out of control."

"I don't think anyone at the time thought that ether." He replied, glancing over at the small blue lights which strangely slowed like stars in the night... and also reminded him of eyes. It vaguely felt like he was being watched.

Edmund found a computer and started it up, finding some files on it. There were schematics for robots, including the type Bucephalus was, an access log, a chess application, and some messages.

What was interesting were the messages, sent back and forth between someone and a John Simcoe. The messages spoke about some kind of evacuation to Theta from Delta, that this Simcoe and his crew were to come to Theta. Simcoe, however, was adamant about staying, even if his crew was leaving without him. There was another message from Strasky, a familiar name, saying that Simcoe's crew was safely at Theta and a transport would be sent to Simcoe when he was ready. There was no response to that, the same with the last message sent around Christmas.

"Sounds like this Simcoe fellow was stubborn." Edmund remarked.

"Simcoe?" Anna echoed, something off in her voice. "As in John Simcoe?"

"Yes. Are you familiar with him?"

"Unfortunately..." She didn't sound too happy about that. "He was a creep, though he always hung out at Delta. He kept extending invitations to me to come to Delta, but I knew he was just trying to get my attention, no matter how much I told him to go away. Apparently he had a thing for me, and was way too obvious about it. He got into a fight with Abe once, but Simcoe had it coming."

"Ah... He does not sound pleasant at all."

"No... He wouldn't leave me be."

A chill went through Edmund. "He... He didn't hurt you, did he?"

She sighed. "No. I hated him though. I was actually happy he decided to stay at Delta, but at least he let his crew go."

Edmund felt a tiny spark of anger, but reminded himself that, based on the messages, Simcoe trapped himself here and he was long gone. Anna, though the consciousness of the Anna she had been there, was safe and away from Simcoe.

"There's nothing on this computer to help." Edmund said, deciding to leave the room and return to the platform.

The next building he investigated didn't have anything ether, aside from a messy and disturbing scene involving scribbled messages and a puddle of blood; eyes, actual Human eyes, sitting there in the blood. It was a disturbing sight, but managed to keep his composure. He'd been seeing disturbing things ever since he woke up; this wasn't too different from what he'd seen thus far.

The messages on the walls were messy scribbles of a message that Edmund could just barely read. Something about light hurting someone's eyes and needing to remove them. That only made the sight of the eyes even worse, because that now implied someone tore their eyes out. He found another message on the wall, saying something about saving someone, talking about a 'warden', which Edmund could only assume was the WAU. Given, the WAU was an A.I. that was growing wild and free like a weed, but perhaps it was more dangerous than he originally thought. It was an enemy constantly around him and he'd already seen how it spread.

Thoughts of the WAU aside however, there was nothing here to help.

Anther area that he was able to get open thanks to Bucephalus was met with no such luck ether, except for finding the body of a man lying near where he had entered.

"Anna." Edmund spoke. "Do you remember when I said I could read certain things, like people?"

"Yeah; like psychometry."

"Well, I can show you what I mean." He knelt down next to the body. "Maybe this man can tell us something."

He touched the man's arm, and the familiar shock traveled form his hand, up his arm, and to his head.

> _"You saw that, right?! You saw Simcoe fucking injecting that shit into them?!"_

_  
'Simcoe?'_ Edmund wondered as the another voice joined the one echoing to him.

He continued to to overhear the conversation, the first voice sounding weaker than the second. They were saying that Simcoe had gotten on a Zeppelin bound for Theta; that they couldn't let him get there, that they had to warn Theta. They said the radio was dead though. Some LUMAR Annex was mentioned, but the first voice urged the second one to go on without them. The conversation ended there.

"The dead man tell you anything?" Anna asked when he pulled his hand away.

"I was able to get something. He mentioned Simcoe; Simcoe did something to the people here and then took a Zeppelin to Theta."

"Simcoe? What did he do?"

"I don't know, but from what I heard, it was bad."

"...Maybe he finally lost it. I do remember he was quite insistent about staying at Delta."

Anna could have been right, especially when upon further investigation, he found a message that said Simcoe was doing strange things and he took a Zeppelin to Theta; said to not let him dock. The message, however, remained unsent.

Edmund left the room and soon located what looked like some kind of receiver or antenna. There was a cable still attached to it, so he followed that back until he came across a terminal that was still working. Taking a look at the screen, though he didn't need to attach the Omnitool, he found a listing of Zeppelins.

"I think this is it." He told Anna. "Do you know how this thing works?"

"You need to establish the link and then call the Zeppelin here, seeing as there is none at Delta right now."

"Got it."

Going through the terminal, Edmund came to a screen with some sort of radar on it; three lines going out in different directions from the center. He let the radar do a scan, settling on a blue line. The screen displayed that a link had been established with a Zeppelin and showed a corresponding code. Edmund then went back to the Zeppelin list and called for the one with the corresponding code. A moment later, the screen displayed it was incoming.

"There we go. The Zeppelin is incoming, Anna."

"That's great. Good job, Edmund." Anna praised.

Edmund wished he could smile, but in his mind he was.

Deciding to scavenge the rest of the terminal for information to his many remaining questions, and the new questions that lingered about Simcoe, while he waited for the Zeppelin, Edmund found two audio logs. One from 2103, and one from 2104. The first one sounded relatively normal, the name Strasky coming up again. Simcoe was mentioned, as was his intention about remaining at Delta.

The next message contained a voice he hadn't heard before, but was identified by another as Simcoe. He'd apparently changed his mind and wanted to go to Theta, saying something about 'letting Delta sleep'. Edmund wondered if it had anything to do with the WAU; the intensity of infection in that one building and the scrawled messages in the other. Towards the end, Simcoe gave a low chuckle, and for some reason it put Edmund on edge. Maybe that was because of what Edmund had heard from the dead man. It was clear to Edmund, however, that based on the information gathered thus far, Simcoe had been up to something; he wanted to go to Theta for a reason, and he had a feeling it wasn't good.

Bucephalus beeped from beside his head, and he looked up at the robot.

"I know. Something doesn't seem right about Simcoe."

"I agree." Anna added. "He usually stuck around Delta, and if those messages are any indication of that, then what changed his mind?"

"And what did he do to those people? The dead man I found?"

More questions.

There was no time to think about that, however, as a message popped up on the screen that said the Zeppelin had landed. Going back to the platform, he saw it was like a large crate with folded down sides suspended by cables, attached to something that was in the vague shape of a zeppelin, except more mechanical. He stepped onto the Zeppelin platform and located a terminal and a slot for the Omnitool.

"Alright, there we go." Anna said once the Omnitool was plugged in. "Let's get this Zeppelin up and running." She went silent, Edmund standing back and letting her work, but then she spoke, sounding frustrated. "It's not working. Why is is not- Oh... Ah, yeah, that would do it."

"What is it?"

"The tool chip won't work; it's busted. We have to get a new one."

" _Can_ we get a new one?" Edmund questioned. There weren't exactly any tool chip storages around.

"We could probably just find a working robot and take their tool chip."

Edmund stared at Anna, unsettled by what she just said. Take a tool chip from a- but the only robot he had seen around here was-

He glanced over at Bucephalus, and then back to Anna. "Are you sure? I-I can't just... Anna, that's a bit much."

"Yes, otherwise we're stuck here. Look, the tool box has a stun baton; that will work."

"You expect me to just knock out a robot? Anna, I don't want to hurt anyone."

"Edmund, it's just a robot." She argued.

"What does that make us then?"

Nether one said anything after that, just lapsing into silence. The weight of that question hing in the air around them; a deeper said question than Edmund had meant it to be. He had been serious, but maybe that was his own pondering speaking; still trying to get used to the fact he was a robot. Anna was the same. Though they were also Human consciousnesses inside these robot bodies. That's where the line blurred.

Edmund sighed. "I'll... I'll get one."

He opened the tool box and retrieved the stun gun from inside. It felt heavy in his hands, perhaps because of knowing what he was about to do. Edmund didn't want to use this on Bucephalus though. It may only be able to communicate in beeps and not a Human voice, but Bucephalus posed no threat. Not once had it attacked him or gave him any reason to be afraid of it. Bucephalus had freed them from the escape vessel; they would have been trapped there if not for the robot. In Edmund's opinion, it appeared sentient as well.

 _'I can't just... I don't want to hurt you, Bucephalus.'_ Edmund silently mourned, his grasp tightening on the stun gun. He watched as Bucephalus now circled the platform, surveying the Zeppelin.

Edmund knew they needed a tool chip, but he'd freed this robot and it trusted him because of that. To betray that trust would be horrible. He really didn't want to shoot Bucephalus, but...

Edmund reluctantly approached the robot and raised the stun gun. He knew what was to be done. What else could there be done?

_'I'm sorry.'_

He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, part of him hoping he missed and Bucephalus would run away.

 

* * *

 

Anna had been unable to look away. Part of that was to blame on her limited viewpoint and the fact she couldn't exactly blink anymore or turn her gaze away.

Instead, she sadly watched as Edmund approached the robot he had called Bucephalus and raised the stun gun to it. She saw a moment of hesitation, and then there was a flash. She heard the startled beeps of the machine before it spiraled away and crashed to the ground.

He stood there, unmoving, a moment later dropping the stun gun in silence.

She knew what she had asked of him, stupidly and regretfully, but what else were they supposed to do? They needed a tool chip since the current one was not going to work. Anna didn't like it ether, she got attached to robots from time to time too, as if they were companions. Over time at Pathos II she did have a couple robot companions, though nether had lasted. She got attached to her ARK project as well, as if it was a companion.

But that also made her think now of Edmund and the robot. He had named it after a horse his previous self had a long, long time ago. From what he said, it sounded like he was close with the horse. Anna thought it was rather sweet he had named the robot after the horse. And what had Anna done? She practically made him kill a memory, a connection to a friend.

It was a hard choice, and honestly, if there had been another way, Anna would have told him. If only the tool chip they had originally had worked. Anna knew she couldn't put blame on the tool chip though. She had asked Edmund to do this. She regretted that it had come to this.

Anna watched Edmund approach the fallen robot and kneel next to it. He took something from it, the tool chip, and then laid a hand upon its metal shell of a body.

Yeah, she really wished it hadn't come to this.

When Edmund got up and returned to the Zeppelin, he quietly changed out the tool chips, not looking at her. Anna could hardly blame him.

"Thank you..." She muttered. Seemed like a stupid thing to say now. "We... We really needed that chip."

"Do you think you could have done that? Could you have done what I just did." His voice sounded dull as he spoke.

"I... I don't know. I am not you."

He sighed. "Bucephalus may not have had a human voice, but really- was it any different than we are now? You and me, Anna- we're basically robots; the same as Bucephalus."

Anna was aware; Anna knew. To be exact, they were Human consciousnesses in machine bodies, so it was a debatable question. However, she knew where Edmund was coming from. He had a right to ask that. It seemed now he was really letting it sink it.

Anna, on the other hand... She had known what was going on with her from the start, but had she really seriously processed it yet?

"When you're ready, just pull the switch and press the button to set the Zeppelin on its way. Navigation is set."

He was quiet, but then pulled the switch and hit the button. The sides of the Zeppelin platform came up around them like a box and the machine above them came to life.

"I'm sorry... About Bucephalus." She tried as it lifted up.

Edmund turned away from her, looking back at Delta. "Me too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOW we are on the way to Theta. 
> 
> In the actual game, at Delta you are forced to chose between killing the helper robot or another robot with a human consciousness (though it is unaware of its surroundings and thinks its still Human). While working on the end of this chapter, I found myself caught up in the same dilemma. Hooray ethical dilemmas. Eventually I decided to write out both scenarios, and in the end, I went with Edmund killing the helper robot (the one he named Bucephalus). I liked how I wrote that better and I thought it would be a mirror of sorts to the beginning of 1x09 of Turn. Also I had forgotten about the other robot by this point and the way I tried to write it back in for a moment wasn't working well.
> 
> There's gonna be a longer update in between this chapter and the next, mostly because it takes place at Theta and it's going to be likely the longest chapter in this fic. Lots of stuff happens at Theta, and the plan is for Edmund and Anna to get to know each other more while they're at Theta.
> 
> Till then!


End file.
